Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 54: Gels, Polymer Networks and Elastomers II

CPP 54.5: Talk

Friday, March 13, 2026, 10:45–11:00, ZEU/0255

On the symmetry breaking between gelation and network degradation — •Michael Lang — Division of the Theory of Polymers, Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Germany

Recent experiments indicate that there is a possible symmetry breaking between gelation and network degradation processes in contrast to the predictions of percolation models and classical mean field models. We analyze this problem by large scale computer simulations and mean field modeling in order to avoid possible problems of the experimental setup. The modeling is generalized to capture the main effects of cyclization and composition fluctuations on the gelation process. Both our modeling and the simulation data confirm the existence of the symmetry breaking already for systems above the overlap threshold. This indicates some general problems of the percolation approach for modeling polymer networks.

Keywords: gelation; degradation; mean field modeling; percolation; cyclization