Dynamics of entangled active polymers

The more accurate theory to describe the dynamical response of entangled linear polymers is the tube theory. In this work, we extend the theory to consider the effect of an active force (drift) that drives the polymer along the tube in a certain direction. We envision a flexible linear polymer which diffuses through a mesh of fixed obstacles under the effect of some internal activity, which results in a constant drift velocity pointing always in the same direction along the tube but slow enough to keep the isotropy of the reptation theory. The combination of reptation and activity results in new physical behavior not previously reported. In particular, the transport properties are significantly enhanced: the dependence of the viscosity with the molecular weight becomes linear whereas the diffusion coefficient of the center of mass becomes independent of the molecular weight. In addition, a superdiffusive regime in the mean squared displacement of the center of mass emerges at intermediate distances. We hypothesize that the model can be experimentally accessible employing the tools of active matter and it will be useful in the design of superfluid materials. All our results have been derived by means of analytical theory and verified by Brownian dynamics simulations.