Triplet forces between star polymers

Abstract

We analyze the effective triplet interactions between the centers of star polymers in a good solvent. Using an analytical short distance expansion inspired by scaling theory, we deduce that the triplet part of the three-star force is attractive but only 11% of the pairwise part even for a close approach of three star polymers. We have also performed extensive computer simulations for different arm numbers to extract the effective triplet force. The simulation data show good correspondence with the theoretical predictions. Our results justify the effective pair potential picture even beyond the star polymer overlap concentration.