Pinning and unbinding of ideal polymers from a wedge corner

Raz Halifa Levi, Yacov Kantor, Mehran Kardar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A polymer repelled by unfavorable interactions with a uniform flat surface may still be pinned to attractive edges and corners. This is demonstrated by considering adsorption of a two-dimensional ideal polymer to an attractive corner of a repulsive wedge. The well-known mapping between the statistical mechanics of an ideal polymer and the quantum problem of a particle in a potential is then used to analyze the singular behavior of the unbinding transition of the polymer. The divergence of the localization length is found to be governed by an exponent that varies continuously with the angle (when reflex). Numerical treatment of the discrete (lattice) version of such an adsorption problem confirms this behavior.

Original languageEnglish
Article number062132
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume96
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 19 Dec 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Statistics and Probability
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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