Activity Induced Enhanced Diffusion of a Polymer in Poor Solvent

Abstract

By means of Brownian dynamics simulations we study the steady-state dynamic properties of a flexible active polymer in a poor solvent condition. Our results show that the effective diffusion constant of the polymer $D_{\mathrm{eff}}$ gets significantly enhanced as activity increases, much like in active particles. The simulation data are in agreement with a theoretically constructed Rouse model of active polymer, demonstrating that irrespective of the strength of activity, the long-time dynamics of the polymer chain is characterized by a universal Rouse-like scaling $D_{\mathrm{eff}}\sim N^{-1}$, where $N$ is the chain length.

6 pages, 4 figures