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Updated: May 31, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
Collapse transition of randomly branched polymers: renormalized field theory
Hans-Karl Janssen1, Olaf Stenull
1Institut für Theoretische Physik III, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Abstract:
We present a minimal dynamical model for randomly branched isotropic polymers, and we study this model in the framework of renormalized field theory. For the swollen phase, we show that our model provides a route to understand the well-established dimensional-reduction results from a different angle. For the collapse θ transition, we uncover a hidden Becchi-Rouet-Stora supersymmetry, signaling the sole relevance of tree configurations. We correct the long-standing one-loop results for the critical exponents, and we push these results on to two-loop order. For the collapse θ' transition, we find a runaway of the renormalization group flow, which lends credence to the possibility that this transition is a fluctuation-induced first-order transition. Our dynamical model allows us to calculate for the first time the fractal dimension of the shortest path on randomly branched polymers in the swollen phase as well as at the collapse transition and related fractal dimensions.
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