Adsorption transition of a self-avoiding polymer chain onto a rigid rod

TL;DR

This paper investigates the critical adsorption transition of a self-avoiding polymer onto a thin rigid rod, deriving scaling laws and critical exponents through renormalization group methods and quantum field theory insights.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of polymer adsorption onto a curved surface using renormalization group techniques and field theory, providing new critical exponents and scaling results.

Findings

Identification of critical exponents for adsorption transition

Scaling laws for polymer behavior near the rod surface

Application of quantum field theory methods to polymer physics

Abstract

The subject of this work is the adsorption transition of a long flexible self-avoiding polymer chain onto a rigid thin rod. The rod is represented by a cylinder of radius R with a short-ranged attractive surface potential for the chain monomers. General scaling results are obtained by using renormalization group arguments in conjunction with available results for quantum field theories with curved boundaries [McAvity and Osborn 1993 Nucl. Phys. B 394, 728]. Relevant critical exponents are identified and estimated using geometric arguments.