Entropic and conformational study of isolated double-tethered chains by three-dimensional lattice simulations

Double-tethered polymers are a kind of linear polymer with a peculiar topological constraint; that is, both of its end-points are attached to a plane which the polymer segments cannot penetrate. The effects of the constraint on the polymer's configurational and entropic properties were investigated by means of a three-dimensional lattice simulation that combined a previously proposed idea with a very efficient chain generation algorithm. In particular, the value of a topology-dependent critical exponent was estimated for the double-tethered configurations. This data is the first report on isolated and double-tethered chains. Also, two optional types of tethered-polymer were investigated as asymptotes of the double- and single-tethered configurations.