Monomer activity solely induces collapse of polymer chain in a good solvent

Ability of particles to transform absorbed energy into translational movements brings peculiar orderings into the nonequilibrium matter. Connected together into the chain, these particles collectively behave completely different from well-known equilibrium polymers. Interestingly, one can find examples of active chains within cells. It is now proposed that activity, induced by molecular motor proteins play a key role in packing of chromatin within the cell nucleus. Here we demonstrate the ability of the self-propulsion monomer units to cause polymer collapse under conditions where there is no explicit attraction between particles. The resulting conformation is heterogeneous and is characterized by a dense condensed core surrounded by elongated loops. The polymer segments in the condense phase have crumpled packing. Using molecular dynamics analysis, we show that this effect is similar to well-known motility induced phase separation, but more pronounced in active chains due to the polymers lack of entropy.