Logarithmic coarsening and glassy behavior in a polymer model with mass-dependent diffusion

We present a model of polymer growth and diffusion with frustration mechanisms for density increase and with diffusion rates of Arrhenius form with mass-dependent energy barriers Gamma(m) ~ (m-1)^gamma. It shows non-universal logarithmic coarsening involving the exponent gamma. Strong-glass behavior is found in the typical times for disappearance of all polymers up to a given length, without reference to the equilibrium states of the macroscopic system. These features are predicted by numerical simulations, scaling theories and an analytic solution of the master equation within an independent interval approximation, which also provides the cluster size distribution.Comment: 16 pages, including 7 figures. To be published in Phys. Rev.

Interface Collisions

We provide a theoretical framework to analyze the properties of frontal collisions of two growing interfaces considering different short range interactions between them. Due to their roughness, the collision events spread in time and form rough domain boundaries, which defines collision interfaces in time and space. We show that statistical properties of such interfaces depend on the kinetics of the growing interfaces before collision, but are independent of the details of their interaction and of their fluctuations during the collision. Those properties exhibit dynamic scaling with exponents related to the growth kinetics, but their distributions may be non-universal. These results are supported by simulations of lattice models with irreversible dynamics and local interactions. Relations to first passage processes are discussed and a possible application to grain boundary formation in two-dimensional materials is suggested.Comment: Paper with 12 pages and 2 figures; supplemental material with 4 pages and 3 figure