AUTHOR=Castro-Villarreal Pavel , Ramírez J. E. 

TITLE=Semiflexible Polymer Enclosed in a 3D Compact Domain

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physics

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2021.642364

DOI=10.3389/fphy.2021.642364

ISSN=2296-424X

ABSTRACT=The conformational states of a semiflexible polymer enclosed in a volume $V:=\ell^{3}$ are studied as stochastic realizations of paths using the stochastic curvature approach developed in [Rev. E 100, 012503 (2019)], in the regime whenever $3\ell/\ell_ {p}> 1$, where $\ell_{p}$ is the persistence length. The cases of a semiflexible polymer enclosed in a cube and sphere are considered. In these cases, we explore the Spakowitz-Wang type polymer shape transition, where the critical persistence length distinguishes between an oscillating and a monotonic phase  at the level of the mean-square end-to-end distance. This shape transition provides evidence of a universal signature of the behavior of a semiflexible polymer confined in a compact domain.