Flory Exponents from a Self-Consistent Renormalization Group

Abstract

The wandering exponent $\nu$ for an isotropic polymer is predicted remarkably well by a simple argument due to Flory. By considering oriented polymers living in a one-parameter family of background tangent fields, we are able to relate the wandering exponent to the exponent in the background field through an $\epsilon$-expansion. We then choose the background field to have the same correlations as the individual polymer, thus self-consistently solving for $\nu$. We find $\nu =3/(d+2)$ for $d<4$ and $\nu =1/2$ for $d\ge 4$, which is exactly the Flory result.

arXiv comment11 pages, Plain Tex (macros included), IASSNS-HEP-93/19

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