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The discovery of topological phases in condensed matter systems has changed the modern conception of phases of matter. The global nature of topological ordering makes these phases robust and hence promising for applications. However, the…
The depletion interactions between two colloidal plates or between two colloidal spheres, induced by interacting polymers in a good solvent, are calculated theoretically and by computer simulations. A simple analytical theory is shown to be…
One of the most striking features of quantum mechanics is the appearance of phases of matter with topological origins. These phases result in remarkably robust macroscopic phenomena such as the edge modes in integer quantum Hall systems,…
The spatial correlations of entangled polymer dynamics are examined by molecular dynamics simulations and neutron spin-echo spectroscopy. Due to the soft nature of topological constraints, the initial spatial decays of intermediate…
The non-equilibrium structural and dynamical properties of semiflexible polymers confined to two dimensions are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Three different scenarios are considered: The force-extension relation of…
Conformational transitions are ubiquitous in biomolecular systems, have significant functional roles and are subject to evolutionary pressures. Here we provide a first theoretical framework for topological transition, i.e. conformational…
The field of synthetic active matter has, thus far, been led by efforts to create point-like, isolated (yet interacting) self-propelled objects (\emph{e.g.} colloids, droplets, microrobots) and understanding their collective dynamics. The…
Chromosomes are crumpled polymer chains further folded into a sequence of stochastic loops via loop extrusion. While extrusion has been verified experimentally, the particular means by which the extruding complexes bind DNA polymer remains…
We consider a directed polymer of length $N$ interacting with a linear interface. The monomers carry i.i.d. random charges $(\omega_i)_{i=1}^N$ taking values in $\mathbb{R}$ with mean zero and variance one. Each monomer $i$ contributes an…
We study the dynamics of driven polymer translocation using both molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and a theoretical model based on the non-equilibrium tension propagation on the {\it cis} side subchain. We present theoretical and…
Correlations between electrons and the effective dimensionality are crucial factors that shape the properties of an interacting electron system. For example, the onsite Coulomb repulsion, U, may inhibit, or completely block the intersite…
The aim of this paper is twofold: - To give an elementary and self-contained proof of an explicit formula for the free energy for a general class of polymer chains interacting with an environment through periodic potentials. This…
Motivated by recent observations that non-concatenated ring polymers in their dense solution exhibit a glass-like dynamics, we propose a free volume description of the motion of such rings based on the notion of topological volume. We first…
The miscibility of polymer blends, a classical problem in polymer science, may be altered, if one or both of the component do not have chain ends. Based on the idea of {\it topological volume}, we propose a mean-field theory to clarify how…
Experiments using nanofluidic devices have proven effective in characterizing the physical properties of polymers confined to small cavities. Two recent studies using such methods examined the organization and dynamics of two DNA molecules…
Computer simulations are used to characterize the entropic force of one or more polymers tethered to the tip of a hard conical object that interact with a nearby hard flat surface. Pruned-enriched-Rosenbluth-method (PERM) Monte Carlo…
Strongly interacting particles in one dimension subject to external confinement have become a topic of considerable interest due to recent experimental advances and the development of new theoretical methods to attack such systems. In the…
Solutes added to solutions often dramatically impact molecular processes ranging from the suspension or precipitation of colloids to biomolecular associations and protein folding. Here we revisit the origins of the effective attractive…
Ring polymers are prevalent in natural and engineered systems, including circular bacterial DNA, crown ethers for cation chelation, and mechanical nanoswitches. The morphology and dynamics of ring polymers are governed by the chemistry and…
The engineering of artificial systems hosting topological excitations is at the heart of current condensed matter research. Most of these efforts focus on single-particle properties neglecting possible engineering routes via the…