Computer simulation studies of static and dynamical scaling in dilute solutions of excluded-volume polymers

Abstract

We have used a novel Monte Carlo method to compute the gyration radius Rg and the hydrodynamic radius RH of excluded-volume polymer chains. The hydrodynamic radius scales as Ng05s (N is the number of bonds) over at least a decade of chain lengths, whereas the gyration radius exponent is close to the theoretical value of 0.59. The anomalous behavior Of RH is well-known experimentally; it is commonly attributed to the belief that polymers in mediocre solvents are not swollen on short length scales. However, the polymer chains in our simulations are uniformly swollen on all length scales; we suggest that the discreteness of the polymer chain is sufficient to explain the behavior of RH.