arXiv subjects

Jarosław Paturej

Publications and source records attributed to Jarosław Paturej.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Structural properties of cyclic polyelectrolytes in dilute good solvent

Cyclic polymers display unique physical behaviors in comparison to their linear counterparts. Theoretical, computational and experimental studies have revealed that some of their distinctive properties are also observed in charged variants of cyclic polymers, known as cyclic polyelectrolytes (PEs), especially in terms of their structural responses to variations in the strength of electrostatic interactions. In this study, we investigate the impact of cyclic topology on the conformations of PE chains in dilute good solvent using scaling analysis and coarse-grained bead-spring molecular dynamics simulations. Our observations indicate that, in contrast to linear PE chains, cyclic topology results in more compact conformations at low and intermediate Bjerrum lengths. Moreover, two structural metrics, asphericity and prolateness, which quantify deviations from spherical and flat molecular shapes, exhibit non-monotonic behaviors for cyclic PEs. This stands in contrast to linear PEs, where these shape characteristics exhibit a monotonic trend with increasing Bjerrum length. A feasible analytical theory, developed to account for ionic distributions around cyclic PE chains, suggests that the fundamental difference between linear and cyclic chain conformations may be attributed to topological effects influencing long-range electrostatic interactions.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2018

On a field theoretical model of polymeric $2s-$plats and some of its consequences

The field theory approach to the statistical mechanics of a system of N polymer rings linked together is generalized to the case of links that have a fixed number $2s$ of maxima and minima. Such kind of links are called plats and appear for instance in the DNA of living organisms. The topological states of the link are distinguished using the Gauss linking number. This is a relatively weak link invariant in the case of a general link, but its efficiency improves when $2s-$plats are considered. It is proved that, if we restrict ourselves to $2s-$plat conformations, the field theoretical model established here is able to take into account also the interactions of topological origin involving three chains simultaneously. It is shown that these three-body interactions have nonvanishing contributions when three or more rings are entangled together, enhancing for instance the attractive forces between monomers. The model can be used to study the statistical mechanics of polymers in confined geometries, for instance when $2s$ extrema of a few polymer rings are attached to membranes. Its partition function is mapped here into that of a multi-layer electron gas. Such quasi-particle systems are studied in connection with several interesting applications, including high-$T_c$ superconductivity and topological quantum computing. At the end an useful connection with the cosh-Gordon equation is shown.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2013

Polymer plats and multicomponent anyon gases

Anyon systems are studied in connection with several interesting applications including high $T_C$ superconductivity and topological quantum computing. In this work we show that these systems can be realized starting from directed polymers braided together to form a nontrivial link configuration belonging to the topological class of plats. The statistical sum of a such plat is related here to the partition function of a two-component anyon gas. The constraints that preserve the topological configuration of the plat are imposed on the polymer trajectories using the so-called Gauss linking number, a topological invariant that has already been well studied in polymer physics. Due to these constraints, short-range forces act on the monomers or, equivalently, on the anyon quasiparticles in a way that closely resembles the appearance of reaction forces in the constrained systems of classical mechanics. If the polymers are homogeneous, the anyon system reaches a self-dual point, in which these forces vanish exactly. A class of self-dual solutions that minimize the energy of the anyons is derived. The two anyon gas discussed here obeys an abelian statistics, while for quantum computing it is known that nonabelian anyons are necessary. However, this is a limitation due to the use of the Gauss linking invariant to impose the topological constraints, which is a poor topological invariant and is thus unable to capture the nonabelian characteristics of the braided polymer chains. A more refined treatment of the topological constraints would require more sophisticated topological invariants, but so far their application to the statistical mechanics of linked polymers is an open problem.

cond-mat.soft↗