title: Dynamics of polymers: a mean-field theory.
abstract: We derive a general mean-field theory of inhomogeneous polymer dynamics; a theory whose form has been speculated and widely applied, but not heretofore derived. Our approach involves a functional integral representation of a Martin-Siggia-Rose (MSR) type description of the exact many-chain dynamics. A saddle point approximation to the generating functional, involving conditions where the MSR action is stationary with respect to a collective density field ρ and a conjugate MSR response field ϕ, produces the desired dynamical mean-field theory. Besides clarifying the proper structure of mean-field theory out of equilibrium, our results have implications for numerical studies of polymer dynamics involving hybrid particle-field simulation techniques such as the single-chain in mean-field method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA; Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA; Department of Materials, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Glenn H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Fredrickson
authors.affiliation: Institut de Physique Théorique, CE-Saclay, CEA, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Henri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Orland