Effects of Rotational Symmetry Breaking in Polymer-coated Nanopores

TL;DR

This paper investigates how attractive interactions can break rotational symmetry in polymer-coated nanopores, revealing significant differences in polymer density distributions and developing an analytical model to explain the thermodynamic forces involved.

Contribution

It introduces a study of symmetry breaking in polymer densities within cylindrical nanopores, challenging the traditional symmetry assumption and providing an analytical framework for understanding these effects.

Findings

Symmetry breaking leads to large differences in polymer density distributions.

An analytical model explains the thermodynamic forces driving symmetry breaking.

Results impact current understanding of polymer behavior in nanopores.

Abstract

The statistical theory of polymers tethered around the inner surface of a cylindrical channel has traditionally employed the assumption that the equilibrium density of the polymers is independent of the azimuthal coordinate. However, simulations have shown that this rotational symmetry can be broken when there are attractive interactions between the polymers. We investigate the phases that emerge in these circumstances, and we quantify the effect of the symmetry assumption on the phase behavior of the system. In the absence of this assumption, one can observe large differences in the equilibrium densities between the rotationally symmetric case and the non-rotationally symmetric case. A simple analytical model is developed that illustrates the driving thermodynamic forces responsible for this symmetry breaking. Our results have implications for the current understanding of the polymer behavior in cylindrical nanopores.