Theta configuration point

The organization of this paper is as follows First, we will present some of the evidences which point to the existence of the chain theta point and to the possibility of the configurational transition, based on the recently conducted Monte Carlo studies by McCrackin and Mazur.2 Next, we will describe the chain as a stochastic process of dependent events. This stochastic process will serve as a basis for the formulation of the chain partition function. The chain partition function will be subsequently expanded in terms of the eigenvalues of the transition matrix. We will also present a general outline showing how the study of the distribution of the eigenvalues of the transition matrix could be employed in conjunction with the Monte Carlo calculations in order to study the thermodynamic... 

So far our description of the random-coil chain basically assumes a dilute solution and we have not yet defined the term dilute solution. It has been discovered that when the concentration increases to a certain point, interesting phenomena occur chain crossover and chain entanglement. Chain crossover refers to the transition in configuration from randomness to some kind of order, and chain entanglement refers to the new statistical discovery of the self-similar property of the random coil (e.g., supercritical conductance and percolation theory in physics). Such phenomena also occur to the chain near the theta temperature. In this section, we describe the concentration effect on chain configurations on the basis of the theories advanced by Edwards (1965) and de Gennes (1979). In the next section, we describe the temperature effect, which is parallel to the concentration effect. 

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