TOPOLOGICAL SOLITONS IN POLYETHYLENE CRYSTALS

A soliton model is presented to describe the dynamics of a single polyethylene (PE) chain surrounded by a crystal environment. The model is based on realistic intramolecular and intermolecular interactions and it generalizes the phenomenological (sine-Gordon) model proposed previously for studying the molecular mechanism underlying the dielectric relaxation of PE crystals. In the present model we obtain several types of topological soliton solutions that describe twisting and elongation (or compression) of the PE chain. It is shown that these solitons can propagate smoothly along the chain and that their interactions are inelastic.