Unzipping an adsorbed polymer in a dirty or random environment

TL;DR

This paper investigates the unzipping behavior of an adsorbed directed polymer in a two-dimensional random medium, providing exact solutions and analyzing how disorder affects unzipping exponents and distribution functions.

Contribution

It offers the first exact solutions for the unzipping phase diagram of a polymer in a random environment, extending understanding beyond pure systems.

Findings

Exact phase diagram for unzipping in random media

Different unzipping exponents from pure case

Distribution functions for unzipped length, bubble, spacer

Abstract

The phase diagram of unzipping of an adsorbed directed polymer in two dimensions in a random medium has been determined. Both the hard-wall and the soft-wall cases are considered. Exact solutions for the pure problem with different affinities on the two sides are given. The results obtained by the numerical procedure adopted here are shown to agree with the exact results for the pure case. The characteristic exponents for unzipping for the random problem are different from the pure case. The distribution functions for the unzipped length, first bubble, and the spacer are determined.