On electrostatic rigidity of polyelectrolytes: an analogy with quantum electrodynamics

Using previously discovered similarity between the semiflexible polymers and Dirac fermions (Ann. Phys. 202 (1990) 186) a new treatment of dilute polyelectrolyte solutions is proposed. The electrostatic contribution le to the persistence length as a function of ionic strength I is calculated both perturbatively and nonperturbatively, exploiting the analogy between the polyelectrolyte problems and that studied in quantum electrodynamics. Obtained results are in very good agreement with the available recent experimental data which indicate that le ∝ I−12. They also clarify and complement earlier calculations of Skolnick, Fixman and Odijk.