(1) Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Royal Military College of Canada, K7K 5L0 Kingston, Ontario, Canada;(2) Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel
Abstract:
No modern theory of polymer excluded volume adequately describes the crossover from poor solvent to good solvent conditions; a fundamental difficulty is a singularity in the binary cluster integral. Mayer expansion techniques are applied to a model with a pair interaction between monomers to clarify the distinction between geometric and solvent contributions to excluded volume. Detailed calculations are undertaken for a hard-core potential and a mimic Lennard-Jones potential. The significance of the singularity in the binary cluster integral for calculations in the crossover regime is discussed.