Self-avoiding walks in slits and slabs with interactive walls

Abstract

Self-avoiding walk models of a polymer confined between two parallel attractive walls in two and three dimensions (slits and slabs, respectively) have recently had a revival of interest. They were first studied as simple models of steric stabilisation and sensitised flocculation in colloids. The revival has been catalysed by new exact solution techniques, that have allowed the solution of directed walk models in two dimensions in full generality, and by new Monte Carlo techniques that have allowed the simulation of the full parameter space in the three-dimensional slab model. Additionally, rigorous techniques applied to the slab problem have also yielded new results. The contributions to the study of this problem that have been recently added include a novel phase diagram for the “infinite-slab” (when the walls are a macroscopic distance apart but both walls may still “see” the polymer) the delineation of the repulsive and attractive regimes of the parameter space, and a conjectured scaling theory for the problem in general dimensions.