Disentangling of two intertwined chains

Abstract

The nonequilibrium process of disentangling of two self-avoiding polymer chains is investigated using Monte Carlo methods. The initial configuration of the two chains corresponds to a double helix of M turns. Chains consisting of N=8M+1 segments with M=2, 4, and 8 have been simulated. The disentangling process is found to take place in two distinct stages. The first step is the softening of the original double helix configuration to form interpenetrating chains with their centers of mass not far away from each other. This process takes a typical time of the order of N3.0 ± 0.2 . During the first stage, the center of mass of the either strand obeys the diffusion law, with the diffusion coefficient D∼N−(1.6±0.2) . The second stage involves the actual unraveling of the interpenetrating chains to form the isolated coils. The time taken for this step is found to scale as N3.3±0.2 . After the disentangling is complete, we recover the Rouse behavior, D∼N−1 for the center of mass diffusion of each coil.