A scale-free network hidden in the collapsing polymer

Abstract

We show that the collapsed globular phase of a polymer accommodates a scale-free incompatibility graph of its contacts. The degree distribution of this network is found to decay with the exponent $\gamma = 1/(2-c)$ up to a cut-off degree $d_c \propto L^{2-c}$, where $c$ is the loop exponent for dense polymers ($c=11/8$ in two dimensions) and $L$ is the length of the polymer. Our results exemplify how a scale-free network (SFN) can emerge from standard criticality.