New Universality Class for Kinetic Gelation

H. J. Herrmann; D. P. Landau; D. Stauffer

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.412

New Universality Class for Kinetic Gelation

H. J. Herrmann, D. P. Landau, and D. Stauffer

Phys. Rev. Lett. 49, 412 – Published 9 August 1982

Abstract

Percolation is often used as a model for critical behavior of the sol-gel transition. A three-dimensional kinetic model for gelation, similar to that of Manneville and de Seze, is investigated with a Monte Carlo method. By looking at the ratios of the critical amplitudes of the "susceptibility" (weight-average degree of polymerization) below and above the percolation threshold, clear evidence is found that this model is neither in the universality class of standard percolation nor in that of classical (Flory-Stockmayer) theory.

Received 8 June 1982

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.412

Authors & Affiliations

H. J. Herrmann^* and D. P. Landau

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602

D. Stauffer^†

Center for Polymer Studies, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

^*Address after October 1, 1982: Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
^†Permanent address: Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, D-5000 Köhn 41, West Germany.