Interacting Growth Walk - a model for hyperquenched homopolymer glass?

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that configurations generated by the Interacting Growth Walk model can be analyzed as a canonical ensemble with random energies, revealing a broad specific heat hump above the theta point through extensive lattice simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a method to interpret IGW configurations as a canonical ensemble and provides simulation data on their thermodynamic behavior.

Findings

Broad specific heat hump observed above the theta point

IGW configurations can be mapped to a canonical ensemble with random energies

Simulation results challenge previous expectations about the system's thermodynamics

Abstract

We show that the compact self avoiding walk configurations, kinetically generated by the recently introduced Interacting Growth Walk (IGW) model, can be considered as members of a canonical ensemble if they are assigned random values of energy. Such a mapping is necessary for studying the thermodynamic behaviour of this system. We have presented the specific heat data for the IGW, obtained from extensive simulations on a square lattice; we observe a broad hump in the specific heat above the $\theta$-point, contrary to expectation.