A Multi-scale Simulation Scheme to Investigate Dynamics of Membrane Confined Polymer

Abstract

This thesis describes a coarse grained multi-scale simulation technique to study the dynamics of a polymer suspended in fluid bounded by two fluctuating surfaces. In our study, these two surfaces are represented as membrane with stochastic height undulations. First, the simulation model of individual components, the membrane, the fluid and the polymer were implemented and validated by observing their characteristic physical properties. Then they were coupled to each other taking into account the interaction between each individual component. The fluctuation spectrum S(q) of a membrane in the absence and in the presence of a confined fluid was obtained; S(q) follows a q^(-4) dependence in the small q regime for both cases. The mean square displacement and end-to-end vector correlation were calculated for the polymer coupled to the fluid. The diffusion of polymer with D proportional to t was observed for long time scales. This thesis primarily focuses on the development and implementation of the simulation scheme. The next step (work in progress) is obviously to do a detailed study of the three component system in the immediate future.