Monte Carlo Studies of Lattice-Model Polymer Chains. II. End-to-End Length

Abstract

The relaxation and the equilibrium behavior of lattice‐model polymer chains are studied by simulation on a digital computer. Results are presented for the behavior of the square of end‐to‐end length l² for chains of 8, 16, 32, and 64 beads, with and without excluded volume restrictions. It is found that the relaxation of the lattice‐model chains without excluded volume is remarkably similar to that of statistical‐bead models. The introduction of excluded volume restrictions causes drastic qualitative changes in the relaxation behavior of the longer chains, and lengthens the time required for their relaxation by factors of up to 15. While the distribution in l² for the longer chains with excluded volume departs noticeably from Gaussian form at quite small and quite large values of l², it appears close to Gaussian in a range from one‐third to three times the mean‐square value of l².