Dissipative particle dynamics simulations of polymer chains: scaling laws and shearing response compared to DNA experiments.

Dissipative particle dynamics simulations of several bead-spring representations of polymer chains in dilute solution are used to demonstrate the correct static scaling laws for the radius of gyration. Shear flow results for the wormlike chain simulating single DNA molecules compare well with average extensions from experiments, irrespective of the number of beads. However, coarse graining with more than a few beads degrades the agreement of the autocorrelation of the extension.