Developments in Wang-Landau simulations of a simple continuous homopolymer

Abstract

The Wang-Landau method is used to study thermodynamic properties of a three-dimensional flexible homopolymer chain with continuous monomer positions. Results describing the coil-globule and solid-liquid transitions are presented for chain lengths up to N = 100. In order to elucidate the thermodynamic behavior, finite chain length effects and the influence of the energy range over which the density of states is determined are carefully analyzed. Simulation efficiency is also studied and it is shown that setting the natural logarithm of the final modification factor equal to 10-6 is an appropriate choice for this model.