https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050515
Tension of polymers in a strip
1
Instituto de Física,
Universidade Federal Fluminense,
A. Litorânea, s/n
24210-340, Niterói, RJ
Brazil
2
Departamento de Física Geral,
Instituto de Física,
Universidade de São Paulo,
C.P. 66318 05315-970 São Paulo, SP
Brazil
Corresponding author: a jstilck@if.uff.br
Received:
5
January
1998
Revised:
2
June
1998
Accepted:
4
June
1998
Published online: 15 October 1998
We consider polymers, modelled as self-avoiding chains, confined on
a strip defined on the square lattice with spacing a in the (x,y)
plane, limited by two walls which are impenetrable to the chains and
located at x=0 and x=am. The activity of a monomer incorporated
into the chain is defined as and each monomer
adsorbed on the wall, that is, located at sites with x=0 or x=m,
contributes with a Boltzmann factor
to
the partition function. Therefore,
corresponds to walls
which are attractive to the monomers, while for
the
walls are repulsive. In particular, we calculate the tension between
the walls, as a function of m and ω, for the critical
activity zc, at which the mean number of monomers diverges (the so
called polymerization transition). For
, the tension
on the walls is repulsive for small values of m, becoming
attractive as m is increased and finally becoming repulsive again.
As ω is increased, the region of values of m for which the
tension is attractive grows.
PACS: 05.50.+q – Lattice theory and statistics; Ising problems / 61.41.+e – Polymers, elastomers, and plastics
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1998