  The cage model for polymer reptation, proposed by Evans and Edwards, and its
recent extension to model DNA electrophoresis, are studied by numerically exact
computation of the drift velocities for polymers with a length L of up to 15
monomers. The computations show the Nernst-Einstein regime (v ~ E) followed by
a regime where the velocity decreases exponentially with the applied electric
field strength. In agreement with de Gennes' reptation arguments, we find that
asymptotically for large polymers the diffusion coefficient D decreases
quadratically with polymer length; for the cage model, the proportionality
coefficient is DL^2=0.175(2). Additionally we find that the leading correction
term for finite polymer lengths scales as N^{-1/2}, where N=L-1 is the number
of bonds.
