Independence of the segment vectors makes the end-to-end distribution an -fold convolution. Use the characteristic function convention . For a three-dimensional isotropic freely jointed chain, the radial delta function fixes , and angular integration gives
The characteristic function of a sum of independent variables therefore gives . In the central large- scaling, , so
Inverting this Gaussian Fourier transform yields
This Gaussian limit of the end-to-end distribution of a freely jointed chain is normalized with respect to , has and , and is valid on the coil scale . If a density of the scalar distance is wanted instead, it is . The Gaussian approximation does not describe the nearly fully stretched tail or the exact finite-chain cutoff at .
For the scattering calculation, radial single-segment distributions together with the given independent-segment assumption imply rotational invariance of the whole chain. Therefore each pair separation has a uniform direction conditional on its magnitude . The same angular average gives
Averaging its magnitude and then summing the pairs proves the required expression for the polymer scattering function:
The ratio has value one at zero separation, including every diagonal term .
The printed gyration formula leaves unsummed. The intended radius of gyration must use a double pair sum, equivalently the mean square distance from the chain's center of mass. To establish that equivalence, put and expand both sides of
Thus the consistent definition is . Expanding gives
Therefore the general small- result is
This Guinier expansion of a polymer scattering function requires isotropy and finite pair moments, but not Gaussian distributions.
For a Gaussian chain, each pair difference across links has variance and characteristic function . Using exactly the scattering sites in the printed double sum, the finite-chain expression is
The closed expression is understood by continuity at , where it equals . The factor counts pairs with , with the prefactor two supplying their reversed order. In this finite-site convention,
This also holds for a freely jointed chain because its link covariances give the same mean square pair distances.
To obtain the complete long-chain scaling function, set and replace contour sums by integrals, keeping fixed as . With ,
The requested Debye scattering function for a Gaussian chain is consequently
exactly for the continuous Gaussian contour convention , and asymptotically for the long discrete chain. Its small- expansion is , agreeing with the general gyration result, and at large . In the continuum coil range this gives . At still larger , the discrete expression instead tends to the self-scattering value one.
There is a harmless finite-size convention in the source: links have endpoints, whereas its scattering sum counts sites. The formulas above retain its scattering normalization; if all endpoints are counted, replace the site count by in the finite formulas. The large- Gaussian distribution and Debye scaling function are unchanged to leading order.