Trajectories of square lattice staircase polygons

Abstract

Abstract The distribution of monomers in a coating of grafted and adsorbing polymers is modelled using a grafted staircase polygon in the square lattice. The adsorbing staircase polygon consists of a bottom and a top lattice path (branches) and the asymptotic probability density that vertices in the lattice are occupied by these paths is determined. This is a model consisting of two linear polymers grafted to a hard wall in a coating. The probability that either the bottom path, or the top path, of a staircase polygon passes through a lattice site with coordinates ( ⌊ ϵ n ⌋ , ⌊ δ n ⌋ ) , for 0 < ϵ < 1 and δ ≥ 0, is determined asymptotically as n → ∞ . This gives the probability density of vertices in the staircase polygon in the scaling limit (as n → ∞ ): P r f , ( both ) ( ϵ , δ ) = δ 2 ( 15 ϵ 2 1 − ϵ 2 − 12 δ 2 ϵ ( 1 − ϵ ) + 4 δ 4 ) 3 π ϵ 7 1 − ϵ 7 e − δ 2 / ϵ ( 1 − ϵ ) . The densities of other cases, grafted and adsorbed, and at the adsorption critical point (or special point), are also determined. In these cases the most likely and mean trajectories of the paths are determined. The results show that low density regions in the distribution induce entropic forces on test particles which confine them next to the hard wall, or between branches of the staircase polygon. These results give qualitative mechanisms for the stabilisation of a drug particle confined to a polymer coating in a drug delivery system such as a drug-eluding stent covered by a grafted polymer.