### Session G4: Polymer Physics Prize

8:00 AM–11:00 AM, Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Baltimore Convention Center Room: 308

Chair: Murugappan Muthukumar, University of Massachusetts

Abstract ID: BAPS.2006.MAR.G4.3

### Abstract: G4.00003 : Field-Theoretic Polymer Simulations: At the Frontier

9:12 AM–9:48 AM

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#### Author:

Glenn Fredrickson
(University of California, Santa Barbara)

I will review our recent work on the development of a theoretical framework and numerical strategies for conducting computer simulations of polymer field theory models. We invoke Hubbard-Stratonovich and related auxiliary field transforms to convert particle-based'' models of polymeric fluids into statistical field theories. This transformation has the effect of replacing polymer-polymer interactions with polymer-field interactions, and renders the action complex. We have developed efficient numerical techniques for computing saddle point field configurations (mean-field or SCFT solutions), as well as for sampling field fluctuations near or away from saddle points (field-theoretic simulations''). This talk will focus on a number of contemporary topics including: high resolution and variable cell shape SCFT, geometrically complex domains, hybrid particle-field simulations, and strategies for avoiding the sign problem. Examples of applications to polymer alloys, block copolymers, and copolymer nanocomposites will be presented.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2006.MAR.G4.3