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Tightness of slip-linked polymer chains

Ralf Metzler·Andreas Hanke·Paul G. Dommersnes·Yacov Kantor·Mehran Kardar
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Abstract

We study the interplay between entropy and topological constraints for a polymer chain in which sliding rings (slip-links) enforce pair contacts between monomers. These slip-links divide a closed ring polymer into a number of sub-loops which can exchange length between each other. In the ideal chain limit, we find the joint probability density function for the sizes of segments within such a slip-linked polymer chain (paraknot). A particular segment is tight (small in size) or loose (of the order of the overall size of the paraknot) depending on both the number of slip-links it incorporates and its competition with other segments. When self-avoiding interactions are included, scaling arguments can be used to predict the statistics of segment sizes for certain paraknot configurations.

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Ralf Metzler, Andreas Hanke, Paul G. Dommersnes, Yacov Kantor, Mehran Kardar. 2002-02-05. Tightness of slip-linked polymer chains. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.65.061103

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