Smrek Jan, Grosberg Alexander Y
Center for Soft Matter Research and Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, United States.
ACS Macro Lett. 2016 Jun 21;5(6):750-754. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.6b00289. Epub 2016 Jun 3.
In order to quantify the effect of mutual threading on conformations and dynamics of unconcatenated and unknotted rings in the melt we computationally examine their minimal surfaces. We found a linear scaling of the surface area with the ring length. Minimal surfaces allow for an unambiguous algorithmic definition of mutual threading between rings. Based on it, we found that, although ring threading is frequent, majority of cases correspond to short loops. These findings explain why approximate theories that neglect threading are so unexpectedly successful despite having no small parameter justification. We also examine threading dynamics and identify the threading order parameter that reflects the ring diffusivity.
为了量化相互穿线对熔体中未连接和未打结环的构象和动力学的影响，我们通过计算研究了它们的最小表面。我们发现表面积与环长度呈线性比例关系。最小表面允许对环之间的相互穿线进行明确的算法定义。基于此，我们发现，尽管环穿线很频繁，但大多数情况对应于短环。这些发现解释了为什么忽略穿线的近似理论尽管没有小参数依据却如此出人意料地成功。我们还研究了穿线动力学并确定了反映环扩散率的穿线序参量。
