339 research outputs found
Exact Solution of Semi-Flexible and Super-Flexible Interacting Partially Directed Walks
We provide the exact generating function for semi-flexible and super-flexible
interacting partially directed walks and also analyse the solution in detail.
We demonstrate that while fully flexible walks have a collapse transition that
is second order and obeys tricritical scaling, once positive stiffness is
introduced the collapse transition becomes first order. This confirms a recent
conjecture based on numerical results. We note that the addition of an
horizontal force in either case does not affect the order of the transition. In
the opposite case where stiffness is discouraged by the energy potential
introduced, which we denote the super-flexible case, the transition also
changes, though more subtly, with the crossover exponent remaining unmoved from
the neutral case but the entropic exponents changing
First-order scaling near a second-order phase transition: Tricritical polymer collapse
The coil-globule transition of an isolated polymer has been well established
to be a second-order phase transition described by a standard tricritical O(0)
field theory. We provide compelling evidence from Monte Carlo simulations in
four dimensions, where mean-field theory should apply, that the approach to
this (tri)critical point is dominated by the build-up of first-order-like
singularities masking the second-order nature of the coil-globule transition:
the distribution of the internal energy having two clear peaks that become more
distinct and sharp as the tricritical point is approached. However, the
distance between the peaks slowly decays to zero. The evidence shows that the
position of this (pseudo) first-order transition is shifted by an amount from
the tricritical point that is asymptotically much larger than the width of the
transition region. We suggest an explanation for the apparently contradictory
scaling predictions in the literature.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures included in tex
A self-interacting partially directed walk subject to a force
We consider a directed walk model of a homopolymer (in two dimensions) which
is self-interacting and can undergo a collapse transition, subject to an
applied tensile force. We review and interpret all the results already in the
literature concerning the case where this force is in the preferred direction
of the walk. We consider the force extension curves at different temperatures
as well as the critical-force temperature curve. We demonstrate that this model
can be analysed rigorously for all key quantities of interest even when there
may not be explicit expressions for these quantities available. We show which
of the techniques available can be extended to the full model, where the force
has components in the preferred direction and the direction perpendicular to
this. Whilst the solution of the generating function is available, its analysis
is far more complicated and not all the rigorous techniques are available.
However, many results can be extracted including the location of the critical
point which gives the general critical-force temperature curve. Lastly, we
generalise the model to a three-dimensional analogue and show that several key
properties can be analysed if the force is restricted to the plane of preferred
directions.Comment: 35 pages, 14 figure
Forcing Adsorption of a Tethered Polymer by Pulling
We present an analysis of a partially directed walk model of a polymer which
at one end is tethered to a sticky surface and at the other end is subjected to
a pulling force at fixed angle away from the point of tethering. Using the
kernel method, we derive the full generating function for this model in two and
three dimensions and obtain the respective phase diagrams.
We observe adsorbed and desorbed phases with a thermodynamic phase transition
in between. In the absence of a pulling force this model has a second-order
thermal desorption transition which merely gets shifted by the presence of a
lateral pulling force. On the other hand, if the pulling force contains a
non-zero vertical component this transition becomes first-order.
Strikingly, we find that if the angle between the pulling force and the
surface is beneath a critical value, a sufficiently strong force will induce
polymer adsorption, no matter how large the temperature of the system.
Our findings are similar in two and three dimensions, an additional feature
in three dimensions being the occurrence of a reentrance transition at constant
pulling force for small temperature, which has been observed previously for
this model in the presence of pure vertical pulling. Interestingly, the
reentrance phenomenon vanishes under certain pulling angles, with details
depending on how the three-dimensional polymer is modeled
Four-dimensional polymer collapse II: Pseudo-First-Order Transition in Interacting Self-avoiding Walks
In earlier work we provided the first evidence that the collapse, or
coil-globule, transition of an isolated polymer in solution can be seen in a
four-dimensional model. Here we investigate, via Monte Carlo simulations, the
canonical lattice model of polymer collapse, namely interacting self-avoiding
walks, to show that it not only has a distinct collapse transition at finite
temperature but that for any finite polymer length this collapse has many
characteristics of a rounded first-order phase transition. However, we also
show that there exists a `-point' where the polymer behaves in a simple
Gaussian manner (which is a critical state), to which these finite-size
transition temperatures approach as the polymer length is increased. The
resolution of these seemingly incompatible conclusions involves the argument
that the first-order-like rounded transition is scaled away in the
thermodynamic limit to leave a mean-field second-order transition. Essentially
this happens because the finite-size \emph{shift} of the transition is
asymptotically much larger than the \emph{width} of the pseudo-transition and
the latent heat decays to zero (algebraically) with polymer length. This
scenario can be inferred from the application of the theory of Lifshitz,
Grosberg and Khokhlov (based upon the framework of Lifshitz) to four
dimensions: the conclusions of which were written down some time ago by
Khokhlov. In fact it is precisely above the upper critical dimension, which is
3 for this problem, that the theory of Lifshitz may be quantitatively
applicable to polymer collapse.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figures included in tex
Identification of a polymer growth process with an equilibrium multi-critical collapse phase transition: the meeting point of swollen, collapsed and crystalline polymers
We have investigated a polymer growth process on the triangular lattice where
the configurations produced are self-avoiding trails. We show that the scaling
behaviour of this process is similar to the analogous process on the square
lattice. However, while the square lattice process maps to the collapse
transition of the canonical interacting self-avoiding trail model (ISAT) on
that lattice, the process on the triangular lattice model does not map to the
canonical equilibrium model. On the other hand, we show that the collapse
transition of the canonical ISAT model on the triangular lattice behaves in a
way reminiscent of the -point of the interacting self-avoiding walk
model (ISAW), which is the standard model of polymer collapse. This implies an
unusual lattice dependency of the ISAT collapse transition in two dimensions.
By studying an extended ISAT model, we demonstrate that the growth process
maps to a multi-critical point in a larger parameter space. In this extended
parameter space the collapse phase transition may be either -point-like
(second-order) or first-order, and these two are separated by a multi-critical
point. It is this multi-critical point to which the growth process maps.
Furthermore, we provide evidence that in addition to the high-temperature
gas-like swollen polymer phase (coil) and the low-temperature liquid drop-like
collapse phase (globule) there is also a maximally dense crystal-like phase
(crystal) at low temperatures dependent on the parameter values. The
multi-critical point is the meeting point of these three phases. Our
hypothesised phase diagram resolves the mystery of the seemingly differing
behaviours of the ISAW and ISAT models in two dimensions as well as the
behaviour of the trail growth process
Geometrical Properties of Two-Dimensional Interacting Self-Avoiding Walks at the Theta-Point
We perform a Monte Carlo simulation of two-dimensional N-step interacting
self-avoiding walks at the theta point, with lengths up to N=3200. We compute
the critical exponents, verifying the Coulomb-gas predictions, the theta-point
temperature T_theta = 1.4986(11), and several invariant size ratios. Then, we
focus on the geometrical features of the walks, computing the instantaneous
shape ratios, the average asphericity, and the end-to-end distribution
function. For the latter quantity, we verify in detail the theoretical
predictions for its small- and large-distance behavior.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figure
A Combinatorial Interpretation of the Free Fermion Condition of the Six-Vertex Model
The free fermion condition of the six-vertex model provides a 5 parameter
sub-manifold on which the Bethe Ansatz equations for the wavenumbers that enter
into the eigenfunctions of the transfer matrices of the model decouple, hence
allowing explicit solutions. Such conditions arose originally in early
field-theoretic S-matrix approaches. Here we provide a combinatorial
explanation for the condition in terms of a generalised Gessel-Viennot
involution. By doing so we extend the use of the Gessel-Viennot theorem,
originally devised for non-intersecting walks only, to a special weighted type
of \emph{intersecting} walk, and hence express the partition function of
such walks starting and finishing at fixed endpoints in terms of the single
walk partition functions
The competition of hydrogen-like and isotropic interactions on polymer collapse
We investigate a lattice model of polymers where the nearest-neighbour
monomer-monomer interaction strengths differ according to whether the local
configurations have so-called ``hydrogen-like'' formations or not. If the
interaction strengths are all the same then the classical -point
collapse transition occurs on lowering the temperature, and the polymer enters
the isotropic liquid-drop phase known as the collapsed globule. On the other
hand, strongly favouring the hydrogen-like interactions give rise to an
anisotropic folded (solid-like) phase on lowering the temperature. We use Monte
Carlo simulations up to a length of 256 to map out the phase diagram in the
plane of parameters and determine the order of the associated phase
transitions. We discuss the connections to semi-flexible polymers and other
polymer models. Importantly, we demonstrate that for a range of energy
parameters two phase transitions occur on lowering the temperature, the second
being a transition from the globule state to the crystal state. We argue from
our data that this globule-to-crystal transition is continuous in two
dimensions in accord with field-theory arguments concerning Hamiltonian walks,
but is first order in three dimensions
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