Jamming of Semiflexible Polymers

We study jamming in model freely rotating polymers as a function of chain length N and bond angle theta(0). The volume fraction at jamming phi(J) (theta(0))is minimal for rigid-rodlike chains (theta(0) = 0), and increases monotonically with increasing. theta(0) <= pi/2. In contrast to flexible polymers, marginally jammed states of freely rotating polymers are highly hypostatic, even when bond and angle constraints are accounted for. Large-aspect-ratio (small. theta(0)) chains behave comparably to stiff fibers: resistance to large-scale bending plays a major role in their jamming phenomenology. Low-aspect-ratio (large. theta(0)) chains behave more like flexible polymers, but still jam at much lower densities due to the presence of frozen-in three-body correlations corresponding to the fixed bond angles. Long-chain systems jam at lower phi and are more hypostatic at jamming than short-chain systems. Implications of these findings for polymer solidification are discussed.