Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 15: Biopolymer Solutions and Networks

BP 15.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 16:30–16:45, H44

Random Networks of Semiflexible Polymers — •Panayotis Benetatos and Annette Zippelius — Institut für Theoretische Physik der Universität Göttingen

We consider a fluid of semiflexible polymers modelled as identical wormlike chains with an excluded-volume interaction which prevents the system from collapsing. We introduce permanent cross-links which fix the tangent vectors of the corresponding filament segments to be parallel, and we treat them as quenched disorder which follows the Deam-Edwrads distribution. We present a semimicroscopic replica field theory of the formation of a random network. We show that, upon increasing the cross-link density in the fluid, an isotropic amorphous solid phase emerges in which the orientations of the chains are frozen in random directions. At a higher cross-link density, a different transition to an orientationally ordered phase is also possible.