POLYMERS WITH RANDOM SELF-INTERACTIONS

We examine macromolecules with quenched random (on the average vanishing) charges interacting either via long- or short-range interactions. If charges of the same sign repel each other, at low space dimensions such interactions produce swollen states. For short-range one-dimensional interactions, we find the lowest-energy configuration by a complete enumeration of all states for chains up to length L = 22. Averaging over the quenched charges results in a swelling exponent nu almost-equal-to 0.57. For power law interactions an exact value of the exponent-nu is found, which in the particular case of Coulomb interactions in d = 3 gives nu = 1.