Renormalization-group analysis of weak-flow effects on dilute polymer solutions

Abstract

A Gaussian polymer chain in the presence of hydrodynamic interactions and subjected to steady linear flows is investigated renormalization-group theoretically. To order \ensuremath{\epsilon} (=4-d, d being the spatial dimensionality) and to the lowest nontrivial order in the flow strength, we consider the hydrodynamic effect on the mean-square end-to-end distance. From our general formula, we extract results for the physically interesting cases of shear and elongational flow. In the light of recent experimental results there is a possibility that the Gaussian model is of limited validity, even below the stretching transition.