Fig. 4.

(A) The nematic order parameter ${\lambda }_Q^{\mathrm{m}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{x}}$, averaged over spheres of radius $r$, at late times in simulations of passive, contractile ($\to \leftarrow$), and extensile ($\leftarrow \to$) systems. (B) Autocorrelation of the link orientation vector ${\mathbf{n}}_i$ (where $i$ is the link index) as a function of separation distance $\mathrm{\Delta }i$ along the fiber. (C) Effective persistence length ${\ell }_p$ as a function of $A$ in contractile and extensile systems. (D) Mean scalar tensile force $⟨T⟩$ inside the chain in the same systems. The Insets to C and D give more detail in the neighborhood of the bifurcation, which occurs near $A_c\approx 0.4$ in excellent agreement with the phase diagram of SI Appendix, Fig. S3.