| Abstract: | We show that Shaffer's version of the bond fluctuation model can be used to simulate three‐arm star polymers. We report a simulation study of both single stars and melts of star polymers with arm lengths up to 90 monomer units (approximately twice the entanglement crossover length for linear chains). Center‐of‐mass self‐diffusion of single stars is Rouse‐like (D ˜ N–1). Due to a limited range of molecular weights we cannot distinguish between a power‐law and an exponential dependence of the star‐melt self‐diffusion coefficient on arm length. |
