Simulating a Simple Branched Polymer Using Monte Carlo Methods

Abstract

In this report we present a model for a simple branched polymer as a collection of stiff rods and nodes. We study the effect of the inverse temperature β, elasticity κ, chemical potential μ and polymer length L on the radius of gyration, by building a Monte Carlo simulation that allows for a variation in the polymer’s length and number of nodes. We use the finite size scaling method to achieve a series of data collapses that lead to an expression for the radius of gyration as a function of βκ and βμ. We further find that Rg ∼ N^0.35 .