Cospectral polymers: Differentiation via semiflexibility.

We consider polymer structures which are known in the mathematical literature as 'cospectral.' Their graphs have (in spite of the different architectures) exactly the same Laplacian spectra. Now, these spectra determine in Gaussian (Rouse-type) approaches many static as well as dynamical polymer characteristics. Hence, in such approaches for cospectral graphs many mesoscopic quantities are predicted to be indistinguishable. Here we show that the introduction of semiflexibility into the generalized Gaussian structure scheme leads to different spectra and hence to distinct macroscopic patterns. Moreover, particular semiflexible situations allow us to distinguish well between cospectral structures. We confirm our theoretical results through Monte Carlo simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]