Concentration-Dependent Collapse of a Large Polymer

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Abstract
The observed condensation of DNA in salt solution in the presence of a second polymer of lower molecular weight is treated by straightforward statistical mechanics. We neglect the details of DNA structure and represent it by a simple polymer of large molecular weight interacting via single-contact repulsive forces with a large number of smaller polymers. In this approximation, the derivative of free energy with respect to the size of the large polymer shows a singularity at a critical concentration of smaller polymers.