A Gram-Charlier Analysis of Scattering to Describe Nonideal Polymer Conformations.

ABSTRACT: Theories of interpreting polymer physics and rheology at the molecular level from experiments, including small-angle scattering, typically rely on the assumption that polymer chains possess a Gaussian configuration distribution. This assumption frequently fails to describe features of real polymer molecules both at equilibrium (when polymers have nonlinear topology or heterogeneous chemistry) and out of equilibrium (when they are subjected to nonlinear deformations). To better describe non-Gaussian polymer conformation distributions, we propose a moments analysis based on the Gram-Charlier expansion as a natural framework for describing structure and scattering from non-Gaussian polymers. The expansion describes the conformation distribution in terms of cumulants (equivalent to moments of

SUBMITTER: Datta A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11500495 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature