Estimates on path delocalization for copolymers at selective interfaces

Abstract

We consider a directed random walk model of a random heterogeneous polymer in the proximity of an interface separating two selective solvents. This model exhibits a localization/delocalization transition. A positive value of the free energy corresponds to the localized regime and strong results on the polymer path behavior are known in this case. We focus on the interior of the delocalized phase, which is characterized by the free energy equal to zero, and we show in particular that in this regime there are O(log N) monomers in the unfavorable solvent (N is the length of the polymer). The previously known result was o(N). Our approach is based on concentration bounds on suitably restricted partition functions. The same idea allows also to interpolate between different types of disorder in the weak coupling limit. In this way we show the universal nature of this limit, previously considered only for binary disorder.