Effects of topological constraints on globular polymers
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Author(s)
Imakaev, Maksim Viktorovich
Tchourine, Konstantin M.
Nechaev, Sergei K.
Mirny, Leonid A
Date Issued
January 2015
Journal
Soft Matter
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Citation
Imakaev, Maxim V., Konstantin M. Tchourine, Sergei K. Nechaev, and Leonid A. Mirny. “Effects of Topological Constraints on Globular Polymers.” Soft Matter 11, no. 4 (2015): 665–671.
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Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Topological constraints can affect both equilibrium and dynamic properties of polymer systems and can play a role in the organization of chromosomes. Despite many theoretical studies, the effects of topological constraints on the equilibrium state of a single compact polymer have not been systematically studied. Here we use simulations to address this longstanding problem. We find that sufficiently long unknotted polymers differ from knotted ones in the spatial and topological states of their subchains. The unknotted globule has subchains that are mostly unknotted and form asymptotically compact RG(s) ∼ s1/3 crumples. However, crumples display a high fractal dimension of the surface db = 2.8, forming excessive contacts and interpenetrating each other. We conclude that this topologically constrained equilibrium state resembles a conjectured crumpled globule [Grosberg et al., Journal de Physique, 1988, 49, 2095], but differs from its idealized hierarchy of self-similar, isolated and compact crumples.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1039/c4sm02099e
