Related papers: Conservation of polymer winding states: a combinat…
In the first part of this work a summary is provided of some recent experiments and theoretical results which are relevant in the research of systems of polymer rings in nontrivial topological conformations. Next, some advances in modeling…
The winding of a single polymer in thermal equilibrium around a repulsive cylindrical obstacle is perhaps the simplest example of statistical mechanics in a multiply connected geometry. As shown by S.F. Edwards, this problem is closely…
In this work a new strategy is proposed in order to build analytic and microscopic models of fluctuating polymer rings subjected to topological constraints. The topological invariants used to fix these constraints belong to a wide class of…
The work addresses the analogy between trivial knotting and excluded volume in looped polymer chains of moderate length, $N<N_0$, where the effects of knotting are small. A simple expression for the swelling seen in trivially knotted loops…
The statistical mechanics of single polymer knots is studied using Monte Carlo simulations. The polymers are considered on a cubic lattice and their conformations are randomly changed with the help of pivot transformations. After each…
Brownian motion and viscoelasticity of semiflexible polymers is a subject that has been studied for many years. Still, rigorous analysis has been hindered due to the difficulty in handling the constraint that polymer chains cannot be…
A variational framework is developed to examine the equilibrium states of a semi-flexible polymer that is constrained to lie on a fixed surface. As an application the confinement of a closed polymer loop of fixed length $2\pi R$ within a…
By using the blob theory and computer simulations, we investigate the properties of a linear polymer performing a stationary rotational motion around a long impenetrable rod. In particular, in the simulations the rotation is induced by a…
Equilibrium states of a closed semiflexible polymer binding to a cylinder are described. This may be either by confinement or by constriction. Closed completely bound states are labeled by two integers: the number of oscillations, $n$, and…
The statistical mechanics of polymer loops entangled in the two-dimensional array of randomly distributed obstacles of infinite length is discussed. The area of the loop projected to the plane perpendicular to the obstacles is used as a…
Topological entanglements in polymers are mimicked by sliding rings (slip-links) which enforce pair contacts between monomers. We study the force-extension curve for linear polymers in which slip-links create additional loops of variable…
Some recent results on the rotational dynamics of polymers are reviewed and extended. We focus here on the relaxation of a polymer, either flexible or semiflexible, initially wrapped around a rigid rod. We also study the steady polymer…
We study the rotational dynamics of a flexible polymer initially wrapped around a rigid rod and unwinding from it. This dynamics is of interest in several problems in biology and constitutes a fundamental instance of polymer relaxation from…
The statistical mechanics of a long knotted collapsed polymer is determined by a free-energy with a knot-dependent subleading term, which is linked to the length of the shortest polymer that can hold such knot. The only other parameter…
The mechanical properties of polymer knots under stretching in a bad or good solvent are investigated by applying a given force $F$ to a point of the knot while keeping another point fixed. The Monte Carlo sampling of the polymer…
We investigate the statistical mechanics of a torsionally constrained polymer. The polymer is modeled as a fluctuating rod with bend stiffness A kT and twist stiffness C kT. In such a model, thermal bend fluctuations couple geometrically to…
The conformations of topologically constrained double-folded ring polymers can be described as wrappings of randomly branched primitive trees. We extend previous work on the tree statistics under different (solvent) conditions to explore…
Statistical Topology emerged since topological aspects continue to gain importance in many areas of physics. It is most desirable to study topological invariants and their statistics in schematic models that facilitate the identification of…
Every smooth closed curve can be represented by a suitable Fourier sum. We show that the ensemble of curves generated by randomly chosen Fourier coefficients with amplitudes inversely proportional to spatial frequency (with a smooth…
We investigate experimentally the distribution of configurations of a ring with an elementary topological constraint, a ``figure-8'' twist. Using vibrated granular chains, which permit controlled preparation and direct observation of such a…