Shape anisotropy of polymers in disordered environment

TL;DR

This study investigates how structural obstacles in disordered environments affect the size and shape of long flexible polymers, revealing increased anisotropy due to defects using numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical analysis of polymer shape anisotropy in disordered environments at the percolation threshold, employing the PERM algorithm.

Findings

Quantitative estimates of asphericity and prolateness of polymers

Structural defects increase polymer anisotropy

Universal shape characteristics are affected by disorder

Abstract

We study the influence of structural obstacles in a disordered environment on the size and shape characteristics of long flexible polymer macromolecules. We use the model of self-avoiding random walks on diluted regular lattices at the percolation threshold in space dimensions d=2, 3. Applying the Pruned-Enriched Rosenbluth Method (PERM), we numerically estimate rotationally invariant universal quantities such as the averaged asphericity A_d and prolateness S of polymer chain configurations. Our results quantitatively reveal the extent of anisotropy of macromolecules due to the presence of structural defects.