Can Polymer Helicity Affect Topological Chirality of Polymer Knots?

ABSTRACT: We investigate the effect of helicity in isolated polymers on the topological chirality of their knots with computer simulations. Polymers are described by generic worm-like chains (WLC), where helical conformations are promoted by chiral coupling between segments that are neighbors along the chain contour. The sign and magnitude of the coupling coefficient u determine the sense and strength of helicity. The corrugation of the helix is adjusted via the radius R of a spherical, hard excluded volume around each WLC segment. Open and compact helices are, respectively, obtained for R that is either zero or smaller than the length of the WLC bond, and R that is a few times larger than the bond length. We use a Monte Carlo algorithm to sample polymer conformations for

SUBMITTER: Zhao Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9948535 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature