BRANCHED POLYMERS IN A WEDGE GEOMETRY IN 3 DIMENSIONS

We investigate the statistical and dimensional properties of uniform star polymers attached by the branching vertex of degree f in a wedge geometry in three dimensions and described by the wedge angles θ and φ. We show that the growth constant is equal to μf, where μ is the self-avoiding walk limit. The f and (θ, φ) dependences of the corresponding critical exponent γf(θ, φ) are studied using Monte Carlo techniques. In the case f=1, our results are compared with existing predictions obtained from series expansion and renormalization group methods. We have also estimated the amplitudes for the mean square radius of gyration and the mean square end-to-end branch length. Our results for the ratio of the mean square radius of gyration of an f-star to that of a linear polymer of the same degree of polymerization attached in a similar wedge, and the analogous ratio for the mean square end-to-end branch length, are consistent with these ratios being lattice-independent quantities. © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation.