ON THE BEHAVIOR OF COLLAPSING LINEAR AND BRANCHED POLYMERS

In this paper, we have reviewed the behaviour of a variety of models of collapse transitions in linear and branched polymers. Both rigorous and numerical results are presented. Some of the work described is still in progress, so the results are incomplete. Nevertheless, the overall picture demonstrates how the association of an attractive fugacity between nearby monomers can give rise to a collapse transition in a wide variety of models. These then qualitatively describe the transition undergone by collapsing linear and branched polymers.