ELECTROSTATIC PERSISTENCE LENGTH OF WORMLIKE POLYELECTROLYTE

The electrostatic persistence length of wormlike polyelectrolyte in a salt-free solution is calculated using its molecular scattering factor in a more accurate form than in the previous paper. The calculated persistence length becomes a=6-1R0f/(1 - f) (0<<f<1), where R0 is a distance within which two monomers of different molecular segments are assumed not to be close to each others owing to the strong electrostatic repulsion between the segments, and f is a constant smaller than unity but close to it. When the value 1 - f is very small compared with unity, and is neglected, this result coincides with that obtained in another paper considering the excluded volume effect.