Tightness of random knotting

Phys Rev E Stat Phys Plasmas Fluids Relat Interdiscip Topics. 2000 May;61(5 Pt B):5545-9. doi: 10.1103/physreve.61.5545.

Abstract

Long polymers in solution frequently adopt knotted configurations. To understand the physical properties of knotted polymers, it is important to find out whether the knots formed at thermodynamic equilibrium are spread over the whole polymer chain or rather are localized as tight knots. We present here a method to analyze the knottedness of short linear portions of simulated random chains. Using this method, we observe that knot-determining domains are usually very tight, so that, for example, the preferred size of the trefoil-determining portions of knotted polymer chains corresponds to just seven freely jointed segments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Conformation*
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Random Allocation

Substances

  • Polymers