Predicting optimal lengths of random knots

DOI10.1023/A:1010921318473MaRDI QIDQ5944753zbMATH OpenWikidataFDO

Authors Akos Dobay, Pierre-Edouard Sottas, Jacques Dubochet, Andrzej Stasiak

Publication date 26 June 2003

Published in Letters in Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0011061

zbMATH Keywords

biophysicsDNAknotspolymersrandom walksscaling laws

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Random walks, random surfaces, lattice animals, etc. in equilibrium statistical mechanics (82B41) Statistical mechanics of polymers (82D60) Biophysics (92C05)

Abstract: In thermally fluctuating long linear polymeric chain in solution, the ends come from time to time into a direct contact or a close vicinity of each other. At such an instance, the chain can be regarded as a closed one and thus will form a knot or rather a virtual knot. Several earlier studies of random knotting demonstrated that simpler knots show their highest occurrence for shorter random walks than more complex knots. However up to now there were no rules that could be used to predict the optimal length of a random walk, i.e. the length for which a given knot reaches its highest occurrence. Using numerical simulations, we show here that a power law accurately describes the relation between the optimal lengths of random walks leading to the formation of different knots and the previously characterized lengths of ideal knots of the corresponding type.

Review text

In a thermally fluctuating long linear polymeric chain in a solution, the ends, from time to time, approach each other. At such an instance, the chain can be regarded as closed and thus will form a knot or rather a virtual knot. Several earlier studies of random knotting demonstrated that simpler knots show a higher occurrence for shorter random walks than do more complex knots. However, up to now there have been no rules that could be used to predict the optimal length of a random walk, i.e. the length for which a given knot reaches its highest occurrence. Using numerical simulations, we show here that a power law accurately describes the relation between the optimal lengths of random walks leading to the formation of different knots and the previously characterized lengths of ideal knots of a corresponding type.

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Cited in

(6)

• The knot spectrum of confined random equilateral polygons
• Lattice knots in a slab
• Random knots using Chebyshev billiard table diagrams
• The generation of random equilateral polygons
• Sampling large random knots in a confined space
• Scaling behavior of random knots

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