MONTE-CARLO SIMULATIONS OF A SINGLE POLYMER-CHAIN UNDER AN EXTERNAL FORCE IN 2 AND 3 DIMENSIONS

The deformation behavior of a single polymer chain subjected to an external force was studied by computer simulations. Both random walks and self-avoiding walks were investigated. The simulations were performed in two and three dimensions using the bond fluctuation model. The projection of the end-to-end vector in the force direction as a function of the applied force was compared to the scaling function obtained from renormalization group studies, covering the full interesting force regime. The differences in the crossover between the linear force and Pincus-scaling regime were studied.