Hierarchies of subphase transitions

Indicated by the peak in the specific heat near T O.2 (see Fig. 12.1), the small globular aggregates freeze into spherical amorphous structures with a maximum number of inter-chain contacts. For rather stiff semiflexible polymers (as our example with /c = 10), however, a separate freezing transition does not occur and the peak of cy near T 0.9 indicates a single-step transition from rod-like coils to a liquid-crystal-like phase. 

The investigation of stiffness effects upon aggregation is certainly of interest, even more so if the knowledge of the single-chain behavior (see Chapter 7) is taken into account. However, we will now focus on the even more exciting feature of transition hierarchies that we have already observed in the case of heteropolymer aggregation in the last chapter, without discussing it in detail there. 

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In the following, we will discuss the aggregation of interacting semiflexible polymers by analyzing the order and hierarchy of subphase transitions that accompany the aggregation transition. 

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