The worm-like chain models an inextensible filament with bending energy and thermal tangent fluctuations.
The persistence length is the decay length of tangent correlations. A common three-dimensional convention is ; a strictly planar chain has tangent-correlation length .
Articles by others on the same topic
A worm-like chain (WLC) is a theoretical model used in polymer physics and biophysics to describe the conformational properties of long, flexible polymers. The model helps in understanding the behavior of macromolecules such as DNA, proteins, and synthetic polymers. Key characteristics of the worm-like chain model include: 1. **Continuous Chain**: The worm-like chain is often represented as a continuous chain of tangent segments, where each segment maintains a certain angle with respect to its neighbors.