UCSB                                KITP Colloquium                            October 15, 2008

The Elusiveness of Knots in Polymers & Proteins

Paul Dommersnes, Ralf Metzler, Andreas Hanke

Yacov Kantor, Oded Farago, Roya Zandi

Peter Virnau, Grigory Kolesov, Leonid Mirny

Outline

I.       Introduction: Knots & Polymers                                         

II.      The tightness of Charged knots                                     

III.     Entropic tightening of Slip-links and 'Flat' knots          

IV.     Open polymers: pulling on knots; model polyethelene

V.      Rarity of knotted proteins

Next (Introduction) Outline Introduction Charged Knots Slip-links Flat Knots Open Knots Protein Knots Summary