Event

The original Doi-Edwards theory (1978) predicted that long entangled polymers should become unstable to homogeneous shear flow for shear rates exceeding the relaxation (reptation) time. At the time this seemed to explain a number of instabilities seen in polymers. However, over the years those instabilities have been explained in other ways, as physics that was left out of the original theory was incorporated into the model. New experiments, however, suggest that the original Doi-Edwards instability could be valid after all. I will discuss recent progress in understanding these phenomena.