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Updated: May 7, 2026

Controlling the Size, Shape and Stability of Supramolecular Polymers in Water
Published on: August 2, 2012
Organization of strongly interacting directed polymer liquids in the presence of stringent constraints
Anton Souslov1, D Zeb Rocklin, Paul M Goldbart
1School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
Abstract:
The impact of impenetrable obstacles on the energetics and equilibrium structure of strongly repulsive directed polymers is investigated. As a result of the strong interactions, regions of severe polymer depletion and excess are found in the vicinity of the obstacle, and the associated free-energy cost is found to scale quadratically with the average polymer density. The polymer-polymer interactions are accounted for via a sequence of transformations: from the 3D line liquid to a 2D fluid of Bose particles to a 2D composite fermion fluid and, finally, to a 2D one-component plasma. The results presented here are applicable to a range of systems consisting of noncrossing directed lines.
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