Interacting elastic lattice polymers: a study of the free energy of globular rings

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2014 Jun;89(6):062601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.89.062601. Epub 2014 Jun 19.

Abstract

We introduce and implement a Monte Carlo scheme to study the equilibrium statistics of polymers in the globular phase. It is based on a model of "interacting elastic lattice polymers" and allows a sufficiently good sampling of long and compact configurations, an essential prerequisite to study the scaling behavior of free energies. By simulating interacting self-avoiding rings at several temperatures in the collapsed phase, we estimate both the bulk and the surface free energy. Moreover from the corresponding estimate of the entropic exponent α-2 we provide evidence that, unlike for swollen and Θ-point rings, the hyperscaling relation is not satisfied for globular rings.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Elasticity*
  • Entropy
  • Models, Chemical
  • Models, Statistical
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Polymers