BROWNIAN CONFIGURATION FIELDS AND VARIANCE REDUCED CONNFFESSIT

Stochastic simulation techniques, such as Brownian dynamics, provide u s an extremely powerful tool for solving the usually nonlinear equatio ns describing polymer dynamics in solutions and melts [1]. However, th e most challenging problems (e.g, the investigation of the universal b ehaviour of long polymer chains, or the flow calculation based on stoc hastic simulation techniques) involve a very large number of degrees o f freedom and hence require an enormous amount of computer time. In or der to solve such problems on currently available computers it is ther efore necessary to develop strategies to drastically suppress the leve l of the fluctuations in the simulations. The purpose of this note is to show that the recently proposed concept of Brownian configuration f ields [2] in viscoelastic flow calculations can be regarded as an extr emely powerful extension of variance reduction techniques based on par allel process simulation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.