RHEOLOGY OF WORMLIKE MICELLES - 2 UNIVERSALITY CLASSES

We identify two classes of rheology in solutions of wormlike micellar chains which break reversibly. In mean-field (MF) systems, new ends created by breaks recombine with other chains and stress relaxes exponentially [M. E. Cates, Macromolecules 20, 2289 (1987)]. By contrast, in diffusion-controlled (DC) cases, self-recombination dominates and the relaxation process is a Lévy walk, leading to algebraic short time decay. The long time decay remains exponential, but with a different time scale. Our estimates suggest that current experimental systems include both MF and DC types. © 1995 The American Physical Society.