Star polymers in correlated disorder

TL;DR

This paper investigates how long-range-correlated porous media affect star polymers' scaling behavior, revealing that disorder causes opposite changes in scaling exponents for star and chain polymers, with implications for their physical properties.

Contribution

It introduces a new universality class for star polymers in correlated disorder and calculates the altered scaling exponents, highlighting qualitative differences from chain polymers.

Findings

Scaling exponents increase for chain polymers in correlated disorder.

Scaling exponents decrease for star polymers in correlated disorder.

Star and chain polymers respond differently to the same disorder environment.

Abstract

We analyze the impact of a porous medium (structural disorder) on the scaling of the partition function of a star polymer immersed in a good solvent. We show that corresponding scaling exponents change if the disorder is long-range-correlated and calculate the exponents in the new universality class. A notable finding is that star and chain polymers react in qualitatively different manner on the presence of disorder: the corresponding scaling exponents increase for chains and decrease for stars. We discuss the physical consequences of this difference.