Scaling of a collapsed polymer globule in 2D

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that collapsed 2D polymers behave like dense self-avoiding walks, revealing boundary roughness and scaling corrections affecting entropic properties.

Contribution

It provides the first extensive numerical evidence confirming the universality class of collapsed 2D polymers and analyzes boundary roughness and scaling corrections.

Findings

Collapsed polymers in 2D are in the universality class of dense self-avoiding walks.

The globule boundary exhibits self-affine roughness.

Scaling corrections originate from configurations with one end on the globule interface.

Abstract

Extensive Monte Carlo data analysis gives clear evidence that collapsed linear polymers in two dimensions fall in the universality class of athermal, dense self-avoiding walks, as conjectured by B.Duplantier [Phys.Rev.Lett. 71, 4274 (1993)]. However, the boundary of the globule has self affine roughness and does not determine the anticipated nonzero topological boundary contribution to entropic exponents. Scaling corrections are due to subleading contributions to the partition function corresponding to polymer configurations with one end located on the globule-solvent interface.