Theory of the dynamics of tagged chains in interacting polymer liquids: general theory

(Received 24 February 1994, revised 16 May 1994, accepted 30 June 1994)

Abstract
The effective Rouse dynamics of a single polymer chain embedded in an interacting polymer liquid, such as excluded volume melts, blends, or copolymer melts is studied. This paper suggests an alternative formulation for the problem of the dynamics of interacting polymer liquids. This theory uses the Martin-Siggia-Rose functional formalism, instead of Mori-Zwanzig projection operators. The theory is developed in different steps. The first approximation is an effective single chain approximation, that leads to a renormalized Rouse model. Taking into account all interactions from other chains and performing a preaveraging over the static and dynamic structure factors leads to an effective friction function acting on the monomers of the tagged chain. The friction function is determined by all interactions present in the system.