MONTE-CARLO STUDY OF EXCLUDED-VOLUME EFFECTS IN WORMLIKE MICELLES ANDSEMIFLEXIBLE POLYMERS

An off-lattice pseudocontinuous model for semiflexible polymerlike mic elles with excluded volume interactions is presented. Expansion factor s are determined for the radius of gyration squared and for three diff erent characteristic point-point distances squared. They are found to scale with an exponent in agreement with renormalization-group results and with previous lattice simulations. A comparison with the Yamakawa -Stockmayer-Shimada theory gives a reduced binary cluster integral B = 0.30 for the micelles which is similar to the value for polystyrene ( PS) in a good solvent. We present an approach for simultaneously analy zing the point-point distance distribution functions and obtaining the characteristic parameters of these. Scattering functions are determin ed and used for analyzing small-angle neutron scattering data from PS in a good solvent.