MONTE-CARLO STUDY OF THE COLLAPSE TRANSITION OF FLEXIBLE AND SEMIFLEXIBLE STAR-BRANCHED POLYMERS

Detailed results are presented of dynamic Monte Carlo simulations of the uniform star-branched polymer model confined to a diamond lattice. The model macromolecule consists of f=4 arms, every arm of identical length in the range of 11 to 199 statistical segments. The model incorporates interaction between the nearest neighbour segments and local stiffness (a preference of the trans states over both gauche states). The size and shape of a polymer chain was studied for various solvent conditions and various degrees of stiffness. The appropriate scaling laws are described. The THETA conditions were also determined. Two different types of collapse transitions were found for the flexible chains and for stiff chains, similarly to the case of linear chains.