The tethered-particle method is a single-molecule technique that has been
used to explore the dynamics of a variety of macromolecules of biological
interest. We give a theoretical analysis of the particle motions in such
experiments. Our analysis reveals that the proximity of the tethered bead to a
nearby surface (the microscope slide) gives rise to a volume-exclusion effect,
resulting in an entropic force on the molecule. This force stretches the
molecule, changing its statistical properties. In particular, the proximity of
bead and surface brings about intriguing scaling relations between key
observables (statistical moments of the bead) and parameters such as the bead
size and contour length of the molecule. We present both approximate analytic
solutions and numerical results for these effects in both flexible and
semiflexible tethers. Finally, our results give a precise,
experimentally-testable prediction for the probability distribution of the
distance between the polymer attachment point and the center of the mobile
bead.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure