Tennis-ball state of a self-avoiding wormlike polymer on a spherical surface

Abstract

Using Monte Carlo simulations of a wormlike chain that contains the excluded-volume interaction, we demonstrate that a directionally anisotropic state exists at high surface coverage, when the chain is confined to a spherical surface. The isotropic-anisotropic transition has first-order characteristics and can be compared with the isotropic-nematic transition observed in lyotropic polymer systems, both driven by the excluded-volume interaction. Unlike a nematic state, the anisotropic state observed here displays the so-called tennis-ball conformation, coupling the polymer-segment orientation preference with positional order.