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arXiv · 1211.1879

Effect of bending rigidity on the knotting of a polymer under tension

Richard Matthews·Ard A. Louis·Christos N. Likos
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Abstract

A coarse-grained computational model is used to investigate how the bending rigidity of a polymer under tension affects the formation of a trefoil knot. Thermodynamic integration techniques are applied to demonstrate that the free-energy cost of forming a knot has a minimum at non-zero bending rigidity. The position of the minimum exhibits a power-law dependence on the applied tension. For knotted polymers with non-uniform bending rigidity, the knots preferentially localize in the region with a bending rigidity that minimizes the free-energy.

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Richard Matthews, Ard A. Louis, Christos N. Likos. 2012-11-12. Effect of bending rigidity on the knotting of a polymer under tension. https://doi.org/10.1021/mz300493d

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