Scaling behavior and equilibrium lengths of knotted polymers

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_25B197F30C73
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Scaling behavior and equilibrium lengths of knotted polymers
Journal
Macromolecules
Author(s)
Rawdon  E., Dobay  A., Kern  J.C., Millett  K.C., Piatek  M., Plunkett  P., Stasiak  A.
ISSN
0024-9297
Publication state
Published
Issued date
06/2008
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
41
Number
12
Pages
4444-4451
Language
english
Notes
Old month value: JUN 24
Abstract
We use numerical simulations to investigate how the chain length and topology of freely fluctuating knotted polymer rings affect their various spatial characteristics such as the radius of the smallest sphere enclosing momentary configurations of simulated polymer chains. We describe how the average value of a characteristic changes with the chain size and how this change depends on the topology of the modeled polymers. Although the scaling profiles of a spatial characteristic for distinct knot types do not intersect (at least, in the range of our data), the profiles for nontrivial knots intersect the corresponding profile obtained for phantom polymers, i.e., those that are free to explore all available topological states. For each knot type, this point of intersection defines its equilibrium length with respect to the spatial characteristic. At this chain length, a polymer forming a given knot type will not tend to increase or decrease. on average, the value of the spatial characteristic when the polymer is released from its topological constraint. We show interrelations between equilibrium lengths defined with respect to spatial characteristics of different character and observe that they are related to the lengths of ideal geometric configurations of the corresponding knot types.
Web of science
Create date
26/11/2008 17:48
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:04
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