Exact Theory of Polymer Adsorption in Analogy with the Kondo Problem

Abstract

We conjecture the exact scaling theory for the adsorption of two-dimensional polymers by using boundary S matrices. We compute the boundary free energy (the ``g-function''), study the flow from adsorbed to desorbed phase, and derive the crossover exponent and all the geometrical exponents at the transition. More generally, we solve the special transition in the O(n) model, the polymer case corresponding to n=0. The n=2 limit appears identical to the ordinary Kondo problem.