Flory-type theory of a knotted ring polymer

Alexander Yu Grosberg*, Alexander Feigel, Yitzhak Rabin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

108 Scopus citations

Abstract

A mean field theory of the effect of knots on the statistical mechanics of ring polymers is presented. We introduce a topological invariant which is related to the primitive path in the "polymer in the lattice of obstacles" model and use it to estimate the entropic contribution to the free energy of a nonphantom ring polymer. The theory predicts that the volume of the maximally knotted ring polymer is independent of solvent quality and that the presence of knots suppresses both the swelling of the ring in a good solvent and its collapse in a poor solvent. The probability distribution of the degree of knotting is estimated and it is shown that the most probable degree of knotting upon random closure ofthe chain grows dramatically with chain compression. The theory also predicts some unexpected phenomena such as "knot segregation" in a swollen polymer ring, when the bulk of the ring expels all the entanglements and swells freely, with all the knots concentrated in a relatively small and compact part of the polymer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6618-6622
Number of pages5
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume54
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1996
Externally publishedYes

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