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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 30: Nonlinear stochastic systems

DY 30.7: Talk

Friday, March 27, 2009, 11:45–12:00, ZEU 118

Scaling of the rupture dynamics of polymer chains — •Simon Fugmann and Igor M. Sokolov — Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Newtonstrasse 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany

We consider the rupture dynamics of a homopolymer chain pulled at one end at a constant loading rate. Compared to single bond breaking, the existence of the chain introduces two new aspects into rupture dynamics: the non-Markovian aspect in the barrier crossing and the finite speed of force propagation along the chain. The relative impact of both these processes is investigated, and the second one is found to be the most important one. For not too long chains the most probable rupture force is found to decrease with the number of bonds. In the limit of large chain lengths the rupture forces saturate. Depending on the loading rate there exists a critical chain length minimizing the most probable rupture force. All our analytical findings are confirmed by extensive numerical simulations.