Fluctuation and Correlation Effects on the Tiling Patterns Formed by ABC Stars of Symmetric Interactions

Based on the same model system used in the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations of ABC miktoarm star triblock terpolymers (referred to as "stars") of symmetric interactions (where the interaction parameters among the three components are equal), we perform both the self-consistent field (SCF) calculations and DPD simulations. This allows direct comparisons between them, without any parameter fitting, to unambiguously quantify the effects of fluctuations and correlations neglected by the former. In particular, we find the bulk periodicity of various lamellae and tiling patterns in our DPD simulations according to the recently proposed method. Comparisons of the SCF results for the above DPD model and those for the "standard" model further reveal the effects of model differences on the self-assembled structures of ABC stars.