Liquid-solid transitions of elastic polymers

In the following, we more systematically analyze the behavior of small elastic polymers in the liquid-solid transition regime. Particular emphasis will be dedicated to the chain-length dependence of geometric changes in the conformations of the polymers while passing the transition line. 

The specific-heat curves for elastic polymers with different chain lengths have already been plotted in Fig. 6.7(a). The ground state of the short 13mer is the energetically stable icosahedron whose almost perfect symmetry is only slightly disturbed by the FENE bonds. 

3 Liquid-solid transitions of elastic flexible polymers 

Temperaturedependenceoftheprobabllltyoflcosahedral(Mackay /j c = 1,anti-Mackay nic 1)and non-lcosahedral (f)ic = 0) structures for exemplified polymers with lengths A/ = 31,38,55. In the left panel, the corresponding lowest-energy morphologies are shown. From [52]. 

The melting transition is indicated by the peak at T = 0.33. With increasing system size the low-temperature conformations are less symmetric and the peak becomes broader. For N 30, the crossover from Mackay-like ground states to anti-Mackay conformations takes 

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