Dynamics of a polymer in an active and crowded environment

Abstract

We study the dynamics of an ideal polymer chain in a crowded, viscoelastic medium and in the presence of active forces. The motion of the centre of mass and of individual monomers is calculated. On time scales that are comparable to the persistence time of the active forces, monomers can move superdiffusively while on larger time scales subdiffusive behaviour occurs. The difference between this subdiffusion and that in absence of active forces is quantified. We show that the polymer swells in response to active processes and determine how this swelling depends on the viscoelastic properties of the environment. Our results are compared to recent experiments on the motion of chromosomal loci in bacteria.