DIELECTRIC BEHAVIOR OF POLYELECTROLYTES .7. DIELECTRIC-RELAXATION AND KERR EFFECT OF CYLINDRICAL BIOPOLYMERS

A model forced diffusion equation is solved for the orientation of cylindrical biopolymers including the configuration of the counterions. The result is used to predict the dielectric relaxation and dynamical Kerr effect of a DNA oligomer for which experimental data appear in the literature. The significant advance in the formalism is the elimination of the counterion condensation assumption. A result is an improved fit of the model prediction to the experimental data. However, discrepancies persist at short times.