MEANDER, FOLDING, AND ARCH STATISTICS

The statistics of meander and related problems are studied as particul ar realizations of compact polymer chain foldings. This paper presents a general discussion of these topics, with a particular emphasis on t hree points: (i) the use of a direct recursive relation for building ( semi)meanders, (ii) the equivalence with a random matrix model, and (i ii) the exact solution of simpler related problems, such as arch confi gurations or irreducible meanders.