POTTS-MODEL, DIRAC PROPAGATOR, AND CONFORMATIONAL STATISTICS OF SEMIFLEXIBLE POLYMERS

A new discretized version of the Dirac propagator in d space and one time dimensions is obtained with the help of the 2d-state, one-dimensional Potts model. The Euclidean version of this propagator describes all conformational properties of semiflexible polymers. It also describes all properties of fully directed self-avoiding walks. The case of semiflexible copolymers composed of a random sequence of fully flexible and semirigid monomer units is also considered. As a by-product, some new results for disordered one-dimensional Ising and Potts models are obtained. In the case of the Potts model the nontrivial extension of the results to higher dimensions is discussed briefly.