The Kranbuehlndash;Verdier computer model for singlehyphen;chain dynamics on a simple cubic lattice is extended to short chains with partial (weighted) overlap to simulate the effects of varying excluded volume on freehyphen;draining chains in dilute solution. As the probability of selfhyphen;intersection decreases, the relaxation time derived from the autocorrelation function of the endhyphen;tohyphen;end vector increases strongly. For a given chain length, the increase is more rapid than that of the mean square endhyphen;tohyphen;end length. As in previous studies of lattice chains, the results depend on the types of allowed motion. For completely nonintersecting chains the observed relaxation time is roughly proportional to the cube of the chain contour length, in agreement with Kranbuehl and Verdier but in disagreement with scaling predictions. It thus appears that either the effects of longhyphen;lived traps have not been completely eliminated or topological restrictions play a role.
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