title: Influence of Rigidity and Knot Complexity on the Knotting of Confined Polymers.
abstract: We employ computer simulations and thermodynamic integration to analyze the effects of bending rigidity and slit confinement on the free energy cost of tying knots, ΔFknotting, on polymer chains under tension. A tension-dependent, nonzero optimal stiffness κminexists, for which ΔFknottingis minimal. For a polymer chain with several stiffness domains, each containing a large amount of monomers, the domain with stiffness κminwill be preferred by the knot. Alocalanalysis of the bending in the interior of the knot reveals that local stretching of chains at the braid region is responsible for the fact that the tension-dependent optimal stiffness has a nonzero value. The reduction in ΔFknottingfor a chain with optimal stiffness relative to the flexible chain can be enhanced by tuning the slit width of the 2D confinement and increasing the knot complexity. The optimal stiffness itself is independent of the knot types we considered, while confinement shifts it toward lower values.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna , Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Poier
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna , Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christos N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Likos
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna , Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Matthews