What is the length of a knot in a polymer?
Statistical Mechanics
2009-11-10 v3
Abstract
We give statistical definitions of the length, l, of a loose prime knot tied into a long, fluctuating ring macromolecule. Monte Carlo results for the equilibrium, good solvent regime show that < l > ~ N^t, where N is the ring length and t ~ 0.75 is independent of the knot topology. In the collapsed regime below the theta temperature, length determinations based on the entropic competition of different knots within the same ring show delocalization (t~1).
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0405253,
title = {What is the length of a knot in a polymer?},
author = {B. Marcone and E. Orlandini and A. L. Stella and F. Zonta},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0405253},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
9 pages, 5 Postscript figures