Conformational properties of polymers in anisotropic environments

TL;DR

This study investigates how polymers behave in anisotropic environments with extended structural obstacles, using numerical simulations and analytical methods to reveal two distinct length scales in different directions.

Contribution

It provides the first combined numerical and analytical analysis of polymer conformations in anisotropic, fractal-like environments, highlighting the existence of two characteristic length scales.

Findings

Polymers exhibit two distinct length scales parallel and perpendicular to obstacles.

Numerical and analytical results qualitatively agree on the existence of anisotropic scaling.

Universal shape parameters are affected by the environment's anisotropy.

Abstract

We analyze the conformational properties of polymer macromolecules in solutions in presence of extended structural obstacles of (fractal) dimension $\varepsilon_d$ causing the anisotropy of environment. Applying the pruned-enriched Rosenbluth method (PERM), we obtain numerical estimates for scaling exponents and universal shape parameters of polymers in such environments for a wide range $0<\varepsilon_d<2$ in space dimension $d=3$. An analytical description of the model is developed within the des Cloizeaux direct polymer renormalization scheme. Both numerical and analytical studies qualitatively confirm the existence of two characteristic length scales of polymer chain in directions parallel and perpendicular to the extended defects.