ISOTROPIC-NEMATIC TRANSITION OF SURFACE EMBEDDED POLYMERS AND THE ASSOCIATED TUBULIZATION TRANSITION OF THE EMBEDDING SURFACE

A self-interacting polymer can undergo an orientational ordering trans ition, depending an the magnitude of the nematic interaction. The effe ct of embedding such a polymer into a flexible surface on this transit ion is studied on the mean-field level. Renormalized values of the ela stic constants of the ''dressed'' surface are derived as functions of the orientational order parameter of the polymer chain. In the disorde red stale the surface tension and curvature modulus remain scalars, bu t depend on the surface coverage of the embedded polymer. In the nemat ic state there is a symmetry-breaking transition leading to anisotropi c elastic constants. At a sufficiently large nematic order parameter t he effective surface tension in the direction perpendicular to the nem atic axis can become negative, leading to tubulization of the tubuliza tion of the embedding surface.