Dynamics of polymers: A mean-field theory

We derive a general mean-field theory of inhomogeneous polymer dynamics; a theory whose form has been speculated and widely applied, but not heretofore derived. Our approach involves a functional integral representation of a Martin-Siggia-Rose (MSR) type description of the exact many-chain dynamics. A saddle point approximation to the generating functional, involving conditions where the MSR action is stationary with respect to a collective density field. and a conjugate MSR response field phi, produces the desired dynamical mean-field theory. Besides clarifying the proper structure of mean-field theory out of equilibrium, our results have implications for numerical studies of polymer dynamics involving hybrid particle-field simulation techniques such as the single-chain in mean-field method. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.