TRICRITICAL BEHAVIOR OF AN OFF-LATTICE FLEXIBLE POLYMER MODEL - MONTE-CARLO CALCULATION OF 2ND VIRIAL-COEFFICIENTS

Simulation data of second virial coefficients have been obtained for a n off-lattice model of linear polymer chains by means of Monte Carlo m ethod with different values of the variable that describes intramolecu lar attractions between units. The data have allowed us to study the t heta, or tricritical, region where binary interactions cancel out. The se Monte Carlo results are quantitatively compared with numerical pred ictions from the tricritical renormalization group theory. With this p urpose, we have employed the same values for the three-body and the cu toff theoretical parameters that were previously used to reproduce the mean size data. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.