Abstract
We outline a connection between recent mean-field theories of short-chain packing in micellar systems and earlier approaches developed for treating phase separation in polymer blends. These theories are easily unified on the basis of a common variational principle, thereby allowing a single route for deriving lateral pressures, local ordering, and thermodynamic properties. In this approach the search for conformational probability distribution functions is mapped into a constrained random walk problem, using the monomer propagator formalism first exploited by Edwards. As an application, the case of a compact (uniform density—‘‘dry’’) amphiphilic bilayer is studied in detail. We show that the ‘‘core’’ free energy can be described via a single reduced variable relevant to both short and long chains: convenient scaling relations are proposed and discussed.
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