A theory of nonlinear convective depletion is set up as a nanosphere translates fast through a semidilute polymer solution. For nanospheres a self-consistent field theory in the Rouse approximation is often legitimate. A self-similar solution of the convective depletion equation is argued to be...

A dimensional relation between the superhelical pitch angle and the superhelical radius is derived for plectonemic DNA. A uniform classical Hamiltonian is extracted from the free energy of the supercoil. The DNA superhelix may be perturbed by a variety of sources, but this does not alter the...

The neglect of chain flexibility in Manning's theory of polyelectrolytes is assessed. For a flexible polyelectrolyte-the uniformly charged wormlike chain-counterion condensation is unaffected but colligative properties need to be modified. The relevant dimensionless parameter is (κLT)-1 where...

Drag reduction is investigated in one- and two-dimensional turbulent flows that are stationary and homogeneous. In the two-dimensional case, the polymer chains are deformed though advected passively through the Kraichnan cascades within a scaling analysis. The typical rate of shear must then be...