Eur. Phys. J. E 2, 311-318
Triplet interactions in star polymer solutions
C. von Ferber - A. Jusufi - C.N. Likos - H. Löwen - M. Watzlawek
Institut für Theoretische Physik II,
Heinrich-Heine-Universität
Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
ferber@thphy.uni-duesseldorf.de
Received 1 September 1999 and Received in final form 18 January 2000
Abstract
We analyze the effective triplet interactions between
the centers of star polymers in a good solvent. Using an
analytical short-distance expansion inspired by scaling theory, we
deduce that the triplet part of the three-star force is attractive
but only 11% of the pairwise part even for a close approach of
three star polymers. We have also performed extensive computer
simulations for different arm numbers f to extract the effective
triplet force. The simulation data show good correspondence with
the theoretical predictions. Our results justify the effective
pair potential picture even beyond the star polymer overlap
concentration.
PACS
82.70.Dd Colloids -
64.60.Fr Equilibrium properties near critical points,
critical exponents -
61.20.Ja Computer simulation of liquid structure
Copyright EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag
