Elastic properties of a polymer chain

We describe the results of computer simulations on a model polymer chain with excluded volume interactions in the presence of an external stretching force. For weak and moderate forces the response is linear while for strong forces the behavior is nonlinear, consistent with the non-Gaussian nature of the end-to-end vector $\overrightarrow{R}$ distribution for large $R$. In the vicinity of the $\ominus$ temperature the onset of nonlinearity occurs at larger forces.