Confinement of knotted polymers in a slit

TL;DR

This study explores how knot complexity influences the behavior of ring polymers confined in slits, revealing different effects on force exerted and structural properties depending on slit width.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the impact of knot topology on confined polymer properties, including force, density distribution, and shape anisotropy.

Findings

More complex knots decrease force on walls in wide slits.

In narrow slits, complex knots increase force exerted.

Knot complexity affects monomer distribution and shape anisotropy.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of knot type on the properties of a ring polymer confined to a slit. For relatively wide slits, the more complex the knot, the more the force exerted by the polymer on the walls is decreased compared to an unknotted polymer of the same length. For more narrow slits the opposite is true. The crossover between these two regimes is, to first order, at smaller slit width for more complex knots. However, knot topology can affect these trends in subtle ways. Besides the force exerted by the polymers, we also study other quantities such as the monomer-density distribution across the slit and the anisotropic radius of gyration.