The Thouless–Anderson–Palmer approach to random copolymer glasses

Abstract

The experimental evidence that the critical properties of homopolymer solutions are the same as Ising-type ferromagnets suggests that the critical properties of the random copolymer solutions might be analogous to that of Ising spin glasses. Using newly developed path integral methods, the analogy between the polymer and the magnets is carefully analyzed in order to be extended to the case of random copolymers. Established similarities permit one to use the Thouless–Anderson–Palmer (TAP) method in order to investigate the possibility of the formation of the new phase for random copolymers analogous to the spin glass phase for the magnets.