Comparing different coarse-grained potentials for star polymers

We compare different coarse-grained single-blob models for star polymers. We find that phenomenological models inspired by the Daoud-Cotton theory reproduce quite poorly the thermodynamics of these systems, even if the potential is assumed to be density dependent, as done in the analysis of experimental results. Using the numerically determined coarse-grained potential, we also determine the minimum value f(c) of the functionality of the star polymer for which a fluid-solid transition occurs. By applying the Hansen-Verlet criterion we find 35 < f(c) less than or similar to 40. This result is confirmed by an analysis that uses the modified (reference) hypernetted chain method and is qualitatively consistent with previous work. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4796143]