 Polymer scattering function

For $N$ equal scattering sites on one polymer, define $g(\mathbf{k})=N^{-1}{\sum }_{m,n}⟨e^{i\mathbf{k}\cdot ({\mathbf{R}}_n-{\mathbf{R}}_m)}⟩$. It has $g(0)=N$; its normalized form factor is $g/N$. Under a rotationally invariant joint distribution, each separation vector has a uniform direction at fixed magnitude $r$. The angular average is $\frac{1}{2}{\int }_{-1}^1{e}^{ikr\mu }d\mu =\sin (kr)/(kr)$, with value one at $r=0$. Thus $g$ depends only on $k=|\mathbf{k}|$, and $g(k)=N^{-1}{\sum }_{m,n}⟨\sin (k|{\mathbf{R}}_n-{\mathbf{R}}_m|)/(k|{\mathbf{R}}_n-{\mathbf{R}}_m|)⟩$. The diagonal self terms are essential in a finite chain and give the large-$k$ limit one for a discrete Gaussian chain.