Reptational dynamics of a polymer chain is stable against kinematic disorder

We study the diffusive motion of a (non-selfinteracting) chain through a quenched random environment, constructed such that it influences only the local dynamics but not the equilibrium configuration of the chain. Our Monte Carlo results show that this type of disorder, which we call kinematic, does not ruin reptation. This is in sharp contrast to disorder including also entropic traps and it supports the view that reptation prevails in melts, where in contrast to a gel entropic trapping is absent. Our data show the characteristic features of reptation, irrespective of the dilution or randomness of the kinematic obstacles. Our Monte Carlo results are in quantitative agreement with our recent detailed analytical evaluation of the reptation model (J. Stat. Phys. 90, 1325 (1998)). The analysis suggests that we effectively see reptation of a “blob”-chain, where the size of the blob rapidly increases with decreasing obstacle concentration. Received 30 November 1998 and Received in final form 18 December 1998