Coarse-graining polymers as soft colloids

We show how to coarse-grain polymers in a good solvent as single particles, interacting with density-independent or density-dependent interactions. These interactions can be between the centres of mass, the mid- or end-points of the polymers. We also show how to extend these methods to polymers in poor solvents and mixtures of polymers. Treating polymers as soft colloids can greatly speed up the simulation of complex many-polymer systems, including polymer-colloid mixtures. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.