  The dynamics of loop formation by linear polymer chains has been a topic of
several theoretical/experimental studies. Formation of loops and their opening
are key processes in many important biological processes. Loop formation in
flexible chains has been extensively studied by many groups. However, in the
more realistic case of semiflexible polymers, not much results are available.
In a recent study (K. P. Santo and K. L. Sebastian, Phys. Rev. E, \textbf{73},
031293 (2006)), we investigated opening dynamics of semiflexible loops in the
short chain limit and presented results for opening rates as a function of the
length of the chain. We presented an approximate model for a semiflexible
polymer in the rod limit, based on a semiclassical expansion of the bending
energy of the chain. The model provided an easy way to describe the dynamics.
In this paper, using this model, we investigate the reverse process, i.e., the
loop formation dynamics of a semiflexible polymer chain by describing the
process as a diffusion-controlled reaction. We perform a detailed
multidimensional analysis of the problem and calculate closing times for a
semiflexible chain which leads to results that are physically expected. Such a
multidimensional analysis leading to these results does not seem to exist in
the literature so far.
