Polymer Theory 2, Collapse, Random Energy Model
- Interacting polymers:
- Entropy; excluded volume; and solvent-mediated interactions
- Mean-field estimate of the partition function
- Swollen (coil) phase in good solvents
- Flory exponent
- Scaling behavior in other dimensions
- Compact (globular) phase in poor solvents
- Polymer collapse, theta-point
- Thermodynamic behavior at the transition; reduction in entropy
- Frozen (folded) state of heteropolymers
- The Random Energy Model (REM)
- The freezing transition and associated singularities
- Designed REM as a model of protein folding
(Detailed Lecture Notes (PDF))