Scaling of complex polymers: new universality classes and beyond

TL;DR

This paper investigates how long-range correlated disorder affects the scaling laws and universality classes of various complex polymers, revealing new critical exponents and architecture-dependent behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a field-theoretical approach to determine new universal critical exponents for polymers in disordered media, expanding understanding of their scaling properties.

Findings

Disorder changes the universality class of polymers.

New critical exponents are derived for star and copolymer architectures.

Scaling behavior depends on polymer architecture and disorder correlation.

Abstract

We analyse scaling laws that govern macromolecules of different topology: polymer chains, homogeneous and miktoarm star polymers in a good solvent possibly constrained by a porous medium. The latter is modelled by long-range-correlated disorder with a pair correlation function g(r) that decays with a power law g(r) r^{-a} at large distances r. We show that this type of disorder changes the universality class of the system. Within the frames of the field-theoretical renormalization group approach we obtain the corresponding new universal critical exponents for systems of homogeneous and star copolymers and discuss different consequences of the architecture dependent change of the scaling behaviour.