Floppy Tethered Networks

D.M. Kroll; G. Gompper

doi:doi:10.1051/jp1:1993261

Numéro		J. Phys. I France Volume 3, Numéro 5, May 1993


Page(s)		1131 - 1140
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/jp1:1993261

DOI: 10.1051/jp1:1993261
J. Phys. I France 3 (1993) 1131-1140

Floppy Tethered Networks

D.M. Kroll¹ and G. Gompper²

¹ Institut fir Festkörperforschung, KFA Jülich, Postfach 1913, 5170 Jülich, Germany
² Sektion Physik der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Theresienstr. 37, 8000 München 2, Germany

(Received 22 December 1992, accepted in final form 14 January 1993)

Abstract
A model for extremely flexible tethered membranes is studied by Monte Carlo simulations and scaling arguments. In contrast to the standard string-and-bead models, no finite-range hard-core repulsion is used to ensure self-avoidance. Instead, the elementary triangles are taken to be impenetrable. Although this leads to an extremely floppy tethered network, the surface is found to be asymptotically flat, with a roughness exponent $\zeta\simeq 0.7$ , consistent with the result of self-avoiding string-and-bead models. The orientationally averaged scattering intensity, on the other hand, is found to exhibit a nontrivial scaling behavior characteristic of a crumpled object with an effective fractal dimension $d_{\rm f}\simeq 2.7$ . This result is compared with recent experiments on graphite oxide sheets.