Development and use of a new model for the Worm Like Chain

The behavior of polymers is determined in large part by their flexibility. Nestled between the rigid and flexible limits are semiflexible polymers, whose behavior is distinct from either of the aforementioned regimes. Whereas the rigid limit is defined by bending energetics and the flexible limit is defined by conformational entropy, the behavior of semiflexible polymers is typified by the interplay of both phenomena. This makes their behavior incredibly rich, but also incredibly difficult to model. At present, models exist to study polymers at very fine (e.g. Kratky-Porod) and very coarse (e.g. Marko-Siggia) length scales. Though efforts have been made to decrease the gap between these two modeling approaches, these still exists a length scale over which no good model currently exists. To address this modeling limitation, we utilize a different approach to develop a model for the Worm Like Chain that reproduces some of the essential behavior of the Kratky-Porod model, while being coarse grained enough to allow for study of semiflexible polymers on longer timescales and under non-equilibrium conditions.