UC Riverside               Condensed Matter Theory Seminar            April 18, 2007

The Elusiveness of Polymer Knots

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