Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-condensed-matter-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/section-a/a3/b/solution

Here denotes a typical chain size, such as an rms end-to-end distance of a polymer chain, rather than the mean end-to-end vector of an isotropic solution, which is zero. The Flory approximation gives in a good solvent, an ideal chain has in a theta solvent, and a compact polymer globule has size in a strongly poor solvent. These are scaling estimates with order-one prefactors omitted, treating the stated as the segment count associated with the supplied statistical length.

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