Accurate statistics of a flexible polymer chain in shear flow

Abstract

We present exact and analytically accurate results for the problem of a flexible polymer chain in shear flow. Under such a flow the polymer tumbles, and the probability distribution of the tumbling times tau of the polymer decays exponentially as ~exp(-alphatau/tau0) (where tau0 is the longest relaxation time). We show that for a Rouse chain this nontrivial constant alpha can be calculated in the limit of a large Weissenberg number (high shear rate) and is in excellent agreement with our simulation result of alpha~=0.324. We also derive exactly the distribution functions for the length and the orientational angles of the end-to-end vector R of the polymer.