Relaxation processes and mechanical responses of ring hard-sphere polymers

A hard-sphere model strictly guaranteeing the uncrossability of polymer chains is used to simulate the relaxation process of the linear and ring polymers. The statistical and dynamic properties of both linear and ring chains are obtained by using Monte Carlo algorithm. We find that the relaxation time of a self-avoiding ring polymer is smaller than the time required for the polymer to move a distance of order of its own size. Moreover, the stretching properties of linear and ring polymers are also studied, and the results show that the elongation curve of a ring polymer is almost identical to that of a linear polymer except under the situation of small external force.