14-04U

In this paper we address the question of shape which is acquired by the long flexible polymer macromolecule in a good solvent. In particular, we are interested in the universal shape properties that are shared by polymers of different chemical content and depend on the space dimension $d$ only. So far, the latter were analyzed mainly using the self avoiding walk representation of a polymer chain. Here, we perform a series of simulations for a linear polymer chain using dissipative particle dynamics based on realistic intermolecular potentials. Our results for the mean prolateness, asphericity and size ratio at $d=3$ – $\langle A_3 \rangle\simeq 0.42$, $\langle S_3 \rangle \simeq 0.52$, $g_3\simeq6.21$ – are in a good agreement with available analytic and MC simulation data and give an evidence of the universality of polymer coil shape under realistic conditions.