  We present a scaling theory describing the collapse of a homopolymer chain in
poor solvent. At time t after the beginning of the collapse, the original
Gaussian chain of length N is streamlined to form N/g segments of length R(t),
each containing g ~ t monomers. These segments are statistical quantities
representing cylinders of length R ~ t^{1/2} and diameter d ~ t^{1/4}, but
structured out of stretched arrays of spherical globules. This prescription
incorporates the capillary instability. We compare the time-dependent structure
factor derived for our theory with that obtained from ultra-large-scale
molecular dynamics simulation with explicit solvent. This is the first time
such a detailed comparison of theoretical and simulation predictions of
collapsing chain structure has been attempted. The favorable agreement between
the theoretical and computed structure factors supports the picture of the
coarse-graining process during polymer collapse.
