Issue 1, 2021

The coil–globule transition in self-avoiding active polymers

Abstract

We perform numerical simulations of an active fully flexible self-avoiding polymer as a function of the quality of the embedding solvent described in terms of an effective monomer–monomer interaction. Specifically, by extracting the Flory exponent of the active polymer under different conditions, we are able to pin down the location of the coil–globule transition for different strengths of the active forces. Remarkably, we find that a simple rescaling of the temperature is capable of qualitatively capturing the dependence of the Θ-point of the polymer on the amplitude of active fluctuations. We discuss the limits of this mapping and suggest that a negative active pressure between the monomers, not unlike the one that has already been found in suspensions of active hard spheres, may also be present in active polymers.

Graphical abstract: The coil–globule transition in self-avoiding active polymers

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Aug 2020
Accepted
09 Oct 2020
First published
13 Oct 2020

Soft Matter, 2021,17, 160-164

Author version available

The coil–globule transition in self-avoiding active polymers

S. Das, N. Kennedy and A. Cacciuto, Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 160 DOI: 10.1039/D0SM01526A

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