1. Amorphous polymers: assembling statistical balls

Whether polymers with a regular structure are brought above their softening temperature (or quenched from this temperature) or irregular polymers are considered at any temperature, the assembly of disordered chains (statistical balls) gives rise to entanglements that contribute to the viscoelasticity of the bulk material.

If, to a first approximation, an isolated chain can be represented by a Gaussian statistical distribution of monomer units around a barycenter (0) (figures 1 a and b ), a set of chains and the resulting entanglements can be represented in the same way (figures