PROBABILITY-THEORY AND POLYMER PHYSICS

This study applies the theory of stochastic processes to the equilibrium statistical physics of polymers in solution. The topics treated include random copolymers and randomly branching polymers, with self-consistent mean field effects. A new and more natural way of dealing with Boltzmann weighting is discussed, which makes it possible from the beginning of a calculation to consider only the "physical" polymer conformations. We also show that in general the random copolymer problem can be reduced to the ordinary polymer problem, and treat the self-consistent field problem for a general branching polymer.