Partitioning of a polymer chain between two confining cavities: the role of electrostatic interactions

A recently developed lattice field theory approach to the statistical mechanics of charged polymers in electrolyte solutions [S. Tsonchev, R. D. Coalson, and A. Duncan, Phys. Rev. E 60, 4257, (1999)] is generalized to the case where ground-state dominance in the polymer's Green's function does not apply. The full mean-field equations for the system are derived and are shown to possess a unique solution. The approach is applied to the problem of a charged Gaussian polymer chain confined to move within the region defined by two fused spheres. The failure of the notion of ground-state dominance under certain conditions even in the limit of large monomer number is demonstrated.