Premium
Dynamic symmetry breaking in a model of polymer reptation
Author(s) -
Aalberts Daniel P.,
Van Leeuwen J. M. J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.1150170607
Subject(s) - reptation , scaling , statistical physics , monte carlo method , polymer , electric field , field (mathematics) , coupling (piping) , inverse , chain (unit) , symmetry breaking , transition point , physics , symmetry (geometry) , critical point (mathematics) , condensed matter physics , materials science , mechanics , nuclear magnetic resonance , mathematics , quantum mechanics , geometry , statistics , pure mathematics , metallurgy
A numerical study of the transition between oriented and nonoriented polymers in a model for reptation is presented. An electric field biases a charged polymer to drift in the direction of its leading end. At low fields this bias is not enough to orient the polymer, but at larger fields it succeeds in orienting the polymer with a definite head and tail. The resulting motion depends on the relative magnitudes of the field and the chain length. For a given chain length, the field plays the role of inverse temperature in this transition. The critical field between these “phases” is found to be a non‐trivial power of the length of the chain. This scaling extends over two full decades in the coupling parameter and the simulations performed involved 2 × 10 9 Monte Carlo steps per data point.