The scaling behaviour of screened polyelectrolytes

The Scaling Behaviour of Screened Polyelectrolytes

{ We present a eld-theoretic renormalization group (RG) analysis of a single exible, screened polyelectrolyte chain (a Debye-H uckel chain) in a polar solvent. We point out that the Debye-H uckel chain may be mapped onto a local eld theory which has the same xed point as a generalised n ! 1 Potts model. Systematic analysis of the eld theory shows that the system is one with two interplaying len...

Scaling and Scale Breaking in Polyelectrolytes

We consider the thermodynamics of a uniformly charged polyelectrolyte with harmonic bonds. For such a system there is at high temperatures an approximate scaling of global properties like the end-to-end distance and the interaction energy with the chain-length divided by the temperature. This scaling is broken at low temperatures by the ultraviolet divergence of the Coulomb potential. By introd...

A Variational Approach to the Structure and Thermodynamics of Linear Polyelectrolytes with Coulomb and Screened Coulomb Interactions

A variational approach, based on a discrete representation of the chain, is used to calculate free energy and conformational properties in polyelectrolytes. The true bond and Coulomb potentials are approximated by a trial isotropic harmonic energy containing force constants between all monomerpairs as variational parameters. By a judicious choice of representation and the use of incremental mat...

A Variational Approach to the Structure and Thermodynamics of Linear Polyelectrolytes with Coulomb and Screened Coulomb Interactions

A variational approach, based on a discrete representation of the chain, is used to calculate free energy and conformational properties in polyelectrolytes. The true bond and Coulomb potentials are approximated by a trial isotropic harmonic energy containing force constants between all monomer-pairs as variational parameters. By a judicious choice of representation and the use of incremental ma...

Scaling behaviour in warm inflation