Kinetic pathways for the collapse of semiflexible polymers

Abstract

Semiflexible polymers differ from their fully flexible counterparts in that the chain has a significant stiffness. As a result in poor solvent conditions the morphology of the condensed structure is a toroidal (rather than spherical) globule. In this paper we discuss the kinetic pathways to this toroidal globule from an extended state. The two possible pathways are (i) direct wind up and (ii) a series of metastable heads. The former collapse is rapid while the later is very slow.