Related papers: Interplay between writhe and knotting for swollen …
We study knotted polymers in equilibrium with an array of obstacles which models confinement in a gel or immersion in a melt. We find a crossover in both the geometrical and the topological behavior of the polymer. When the polymers' radius…
Inspired by how certain proteins "sense" knots and entanglements in DNA molecules, here we ask if there exist local geometric features that may be used as a read-out of the underlying topology of generic polymers. We perform molecular…
Using a combination of the replica-exchange Monte Carlo algorithm and the multicanonical method, we investigate the influence of bending stiffness on the conformational phases of a bead-stick homopolymer model and present the pseudo-phase…
The viscous flow of polymer chains in dense melts is dominated by topological constraints whenever the single chain contour length, N, becomes larger than the characteristic scale Ne, defining comprehensively the macroscopic rheological…
The probability of a random polygon (or a ring polymer) having a knot type $K$ should depend on the complexity of the knot $K$. Through computer simulation using knot invariants, we show that the knotting probability decreases exponentially…
We define the knotting probability of a knot $K$ by the probability for a random polygon (RP) or self-avoiding polygon (SAP) of $N$ segments having the knot type $K$. We show fundamental and generic properties of the knotting probability…
Several nontrivial properties are shown for the mean square radius of gyration $R_K^2$ of ring polymers with a fixed knot type K. Through computer simulation, we discuss both finite-size and asymptotic behaviors of the gyration radius under…
We introduce a two-dimensional lattice model for the description of knotted polymer rings. A polymer configuration is modeled by a closed polygon drawn on the square diagonal lattice, with possible crossings describing pairs of strands of…
Spontaneous formation of knots in long polymers at equilibrium is inevitable but becomes rare in sufficiently short chains. Here, we show that knotting and knot complexity increase by orders of magnitude in diblock polymers with a fraction…
Nonequilibrium active polymers provide a minimal framework to investigate biopolymers such as DNA and chromatin under the action of molecular motors. Here we study active ring polymers with controlled topology and show that knot type…
Topological constraints can affect both equilibrium and dynamic properties of polymer systems, and can play a role in the organization of chromosomes. Despite many theoretical studies, the effects of topological constraints on the…
We probe the character of knotting in open, confined polymers, assigning knot types to open curves by identifying their projections as virtual knots. In this sense, virtual knots are transitional, lying in between classical knot types,…
We study several related models of self-avoiding polygons in a tubular subgraph of the simple cubic lattice, with a particular interest in the asymptotics of the knotting statistics. Polygons in a tube can be characterised by a finite…
We discuss the entropy of a circular polymer under a topological constraint. We call it the {\it topological entropy} of the polymer, in short. A ring polymer does not change its topology (knot type) under any thermal fluctuations. Through…
Semiflexible polymers are widely used as a paradigm for understanding structural phases in biomolecules including folding of proteins. Here, we compare bead-spring and bead-stick variants of coarse-grained semiflexible polymer models that…
Knotted proteins embed a physical (i.e., open) knot within their native structures. For decades, significant effort has been devoted to elucidating the functional role of knots in proteins, yet no consensus has been reached. Here, using…
We estimate by Monte Carlo simulations the configurational entropy of $N$-steps polygons in the cubic lattice with fixed knot type. By collecting a rich statistics of configurations with very large values of $N$ we are able to analyse the…
Using a lattice model of polymers in a tube, we define one way to characterise different configurations of a given knot as either "local" or "non-local" and, for several ring polymer models, we provide both theoretical and numerical…
We show that the average size of self-avoiding polygons (SAP) with a fixed knot is much larger than that of no topological constraint if the excluded volume is small and the number of segments is large. We call it topological swelling. We…
We investigate the Rouse dynamics of a flexible ring polymer with a prime knot. Within a Monte Carlo approach, we locate the knot, follow its diffusion, and observe the fluctuations of its length. We characterise a topological time scale,…