A path integral approach to the dynamics of random chains

Abstract

In this work the dynamics of a freely jointed random chain with small masses attached to the joints is studied from a microscopic point of view. The chain is treated using a stringy approach, in which a statistical sum is performed over all two dimensional trajectories spanned by the chain during its fluctuations. In the limit in which the chain becomes a continuous curve, the probability function for such a system coincides with the partition function of a generalized nonlinear sigma model. The cases of open or closed chains in two and three dimensions are discussed. In three dimensions it is possible also to introduce some rigidity at the joints, allowing the segments of the chain to take only particular angles with respect to a given direction.