Topologically driven swelling of a polymer loop

Nathan T. Moore, Rhonald C. Lua, Alexander Y. Grosberg

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Numerical studies of the average size of trivially knotted polymer loops with no excluded volume were undertaken. Topology was identified by Alexander and Vassiliev degree 2 invariants. Probability of a trivial knot, average gyration radius, and probability density distributions as functions of gyration radius were generated for loops of up to N = 3,000 segments. Gyration radii of trivially knotted loops were found to follow a power law similar to that of self-avoiding walks consistent with earlier theoretical predictions.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)13431-13435
    Number of pages5
    JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    Volume101
    Issue number37
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Sep 14 2004

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General

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