Single chain polyelectrolyte conformation 1 - Influence of the spatial dimension and ionic strength

Single polyelectrolyte chains were simulated in the Debye-Huckel approximat ion. The average end-to-end quadratic distance (R-2) was calculated as a fu nction pf the chain length, the ionic strength of the solution and the dime nsion of space. The upper critical dimension d = 6, for the electrostatic i nteraction, and the asymptotic Stretched behavior are in agreement with rec ent developments of renormalization group theory. The transition between st retched and coiled conformations is described.