title: Effect of Bending Rigidity on the Knotting of a Polymer under Tension.
abstract: A coarse-grained computational model is used to investigate how the bending rigidity of a polymer under tension affects the formation of a trefoil knot. Thermodynamic integration techniques are applied to demonstrate that the free-energy cost of forming a knot has a minimum at nonzero bending rigidity. The position of the minimum exhibits a power-law dependence on the applied tension. For knotted polymers with nonuniform bending rigidity, the knots preferentially localize in the region with a bending rigidity that minimizes the free energy.
authors: Faculty of Physics,  University of Vienna , Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Matthews
authors: Ard A
authors: AA
authors: Louis
authors: Christos N
authors: CN
authors: Likos
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