The effects of Lowe-Andersen temperature controlling method on the polymer properties in mesoscopic simulations

Lowe-Andersen (LA) temperature controlling method [C. P. Lowe, Europhys. Lett. 47, 145 (1999)] is applied in a series of mesoscopic polymer simulations to test its validity and efficiency. The method is an alternative for dissipative particle dynamics simulation (DPD) technique which is also Galilean invariant. It shows excellent temperature control and gives correct radial distribution function as that from DPD simulation. The efficiency of LA method is compared with other typical DPD integration schemes and is proved to be moderately efficient. Moreover, we apply this approach to diblock copolymer microphase separation simulations. With LA method, we are able to reproduce all the results from the conventional DPD simulations. The calculated structure factors of the microphases are consistent with the experiments. We also study the microphase evolution dynamics with increasing χN and find that the bath collision frequency Τ does not affect the order of appearing phases. Although the thermostat does not affect the surface tension, the order-disorder transition (ODT) is somewhat sensitive to the values of Τ, i.e., the ODT is nonmonotonic with increasing Τ. The dynamic scaling law is also tested, showing that the relation obeys the Rouse theory with various Τ.