Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.109, No.15, 6486-6489, 1998
Long-time dynamics of de Gennes' model for reptation
Diffusion of a polymer in a gel is studied within the framework of de Gennes' model for reptation. Our results for the scaling of the diffusion coefficient D and the longest relaxation time tau are markedly different from the most recently reported results, and are in agreement with de Gennes' reptation arguments : D similar to N-2 and tau similar to N-3. The leading exponent of the finite-size corrections to the diffusion coefficient is consistent with the value of -2/3 that was reported for the Rubinstein model. This agreement suggests that its origin might be physical rather than an artifact of these models.