Bifurcation of Collapse Transition for Semiflexible Polymers

We extend our previous study [1] on a generic coarse-grained semiflexible polymer model with self-interactions and investigate the regime in the hyperphase diagram, parametrized by temperature and bending stiffness, where the known collapse transition bifurcates. For this purpose, we employ the recently developed generalized microcanonical inflection point analysis method [2]. In contrast to conventional canonical statistical analysis methods, our method provides a scheme for the systematic identification and classification of transitions. Microcanonical entropies needed for the analysis were obtained in extensive replica-exchange Mont Carlo simulations [3, 4]. A detailed conformational analysis is performed, and dominant structure types are identified in all phases.

References

[1] D. Aierken and M. Bachmann, Polymers 12, 3013 (2020).

[2] K. Qi and M. Bachmann, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 180601 (2018).

[3] R. H. Swendsen and J.-S. Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 2607 (1986).

[4] K. Hukushima and K. Nemoto, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 65, 1604 (1996)