Algebraic Displacement Correlation in Two-Dimensional Polymer Melts

Abstract

Dense self-avoiding polymer chains in strictly two dimensions are compact objects with fractal contours. Using scaling arguments and molecular dynamics simulations (with negligible momentum conservation) it is shown that correlated amoebalike fluctuations of the (sub)chain contours dominate the relaxation dynamics on all scales. The incompressibility of the melt and the compactness of (sub)chains impose a scale-free constraint on the contour fluctuations. This leads to strong long range spatiotemporal correlations of the displacement field as shown, e.g., by the (negative) algebraic decay of the center-of-mass velocity correlation function C(t)∼-1/t(6/5) with time t.