Dynamics of concentrated polymer systems. Part 1.—Brownian motion in the equilibrium state

In this series of papers, the dynamics of polymers in melts and concentrated solutions are discussed with the eventual aim of constructing the rheological constitutive equation. The basic ideas are introduced in this paper. A mathematical model chain which describes the motion of the polymer in the fully entangled state is presented and its Brownian motion in equilibrium is studied. The model chain, called the primitive chain, shows much qualitatively different behaviour from that of the Rouse chain used in dilute solution theory.