Dynamics of a Semiflexible Polymer or Polymer Ring in Shear Flow

Abstract

Polymers exposed to shear flow exhibit a rich tumbling dynamics. While rigid rods rotate on Jeffery orbits, flexible polymers stretch and coil up during tumbling. Theoretical results show that in both of these asymptotic regimes the tumbling frequency f_c in a linear shear flow of strength γscales as a power law Wi^(2/3) in the Weissenberg number Wi=γτ, where τis a characteristic time of the polymer's relaxational dynamics. For flexible polymers these theoretical results are well confirmed by experimental single molecule studies. However, for the intermediate semiflexible regime the situation is less clear. Here we perform extensive Brownian dynamics simulations to explore the tumbling dynamics of semiflexible polymers over a broad range of shear strength and the polymer's persistence length l_p. We find that the Weissenberg number alone does not suffice to fully characterize the tumbling dynamics, and the classical scaling law breaks down. Instead, both the polymer's stiffness and the shear rate are relevant control parameters. Based on our Brownian dynamics simulations we postulate that in the parameter range most relevant for cytoskeletal filaments there is a distinct scaling behavior with f_c τ*=Wi^(3/4) f_c (x) with Wi=γτ* and the scaling variable x=(l_p/L)(Wi)^(-1/3); here τ* is the time the polymer's center of mass requires to diffuse its own contour length L. Comparing these results with experimental data on F-actin we find that the Wi^(3/4) scaling law agrees quantitatively significantly better with the data than the classical Wi^(2/3) law. Finally, we extend our results to single ring polymers in shear flow, and find similar results as for linear polymers with slightly different power laws.