A topologically driven glass in ring polymers.
The static and dynamic properties of ring polymers in concentrated solutions remains one of the last deep unsolved questions in polymer physics. At the same time, the nature of the glass transition in polymeric systems is also not well understood. In this work, we study a novel glass transition in systems made of circular polymers by exploiting the topological constraints that are conjectured to populate concentrated solutions of rings. We show that such rings strongly interpenetrate through one another, generating an extensive network of topological interactions that dramatically affects their dynamics. We show that a kinetically arrested state can be induced by randomly pinning a small fraction of the rings. This occurs well above the classical glass transition temperature at which microscopic mobility is lost. Our work both demonstrates the existence of long-lived inter-ring penetrations and realizes a novel, topologically induced, glass transition.
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom; davide.michieletto@ed.ac.uk m.s.turner@warwick.ac.uk.
Davide
D
Michieletto
Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom davide.michieletto@ed.ac.uk m.s.turner@warwick.ac.uk.
Matthew S
MS
Turner
glass transition; molecular dynamics; ring polymers; topological glass; topology