  The reorientation dynamics of local tangent vectors of chains in isotropic
amorphous melts containing semiflexible model polymers was studied by molecular
dynamics simulations. The reorientation is strongly influenced both by the
local chain stiffness and by the overall chain length. It takes place by two
different subsequent processes: A short-time non-exponential decay and a
long-time exponential reorientation arising from the relaxation of medium-size
chain segments. Both processes depend on stiffness and chain length. The strong
influence of the chain length on the chain dynamics is in marked contrast to
its negligible effect on the static structure of the melt. The local structure
shows only a small dependence on the stiffness, and is independent of chain
length. Calculated correlation functions related to double-quantum NMR
experiments are in qualitative agreement with experiments on entangled melts. A
plateau is observed in the dependence of segment reorientation on the
mean-squared displacement of the corresponding chain segments. This plateau
confirms, on one hand, the existence of reptation dynamics. On the other hand,
it shows how the reptation picture has to be adapted if, instead of fully
flexible chains, semirigid chains are considered.
