Jamming of Knots along a Tensioned Chain
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Doyle_Jamming of knots.pdf
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Author(s)
Narsimhan, Vivek
Renner, Christopher Benjamin
Doyle, Patrick S
Date Issued
January 2016
Journal
ACS Macro Letters
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Citation
Narsimhan, Vivek, C. Benjamin Renner, and Patrick S. Doyle. “Jamming of Knots Along a Tensioned Chain.” ACS Macro Letters 5, no. 1 (January 19, 2016): 123–127.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We examine the motion of a knot along a tensioned chain whose backbone is corrugated due to excluded volume effects. At low applied tensions, the knot traverses the chain diffusively, while at higher tensions the knot makes slow, discrete hops that can be described as a Poisson process. In this “jammed” regime, the knot’s long-time diffusivity decreases exponentially with increasing tension. We quantify how these measurements are altered by chain rigidity and the corrugation of the polymer backbone. We also characterize the energy barrier of the reptation moves that gives rise to the knot’s motion. For the simple knot types examined thus far (3[subscript 1], 4[subscript 1], 5[subscript 1], 5[subscript 2]), the dominant contribution to the energy landscape appears in the first step of reptation—i.e., polymer entering the knotted core. We hope this study gives insight into what physics contributes to the internal friction of highly jammed knots.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.5b00737
