Calculation of the persistence length of a flexible polymer chain with short-range self-repulsion

For a self-repelling polymer chain consisting of n segments we calculate the persistence length , defined as the projection of the end-to-end vector on the direction of the j-th segment. This quantity shows some pronounced variation along the chain. Using the renormalization group and -expansion we establish the scaling form and calculate the scaling function to order . Asymptotically, the simple result emerges for dimension d = 3. Also away from the excluded-volume limit is found to behave very similar to the swelling factor of a chain of length . We carry through simulations which are found to be in good accord with our analytical results. For d = 2 both our and previous simulations as well as theoretical arguments suggest the existence of logarithmic anomalies.Received: 17 November 2003, Published online: 30 March 2004PACS: 61.25.Hq Macromolecular and polymer solutions; polymer melts; swelling - 05.10.Cc Renormalization group methods