Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 60: Focus: Topological Problems in the Physics of Polymers, Biopolymers and Fibers I (joint session BP/CPP, organized by CPP)
CPP 60.2: Talk
Thursday, March 23, 2017, 15:30–15:45, ZEU 260
Minimal surfaces on unconcatenated polymer rings in melt — •Jan Smrek1 and Alexander Grosberg2 — 1Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany — 2Center for Soft Matter Research and Department of Physics, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
In order to quantify the effect of mutual threading on conformations and dynamics of unconcatenated and unknotted rings in the melt we computationally examine their minimal surfaces. We found a linear scaling of the surface area with the ring length. Minimal surfaces allow for an unambiguous algorithmic definition of mutual threading between rings. Based on it, we found that although ring threading is very frequent, vast majority of cases correspond to very short loops. These findings explain why approximate theories which neglect threading in the description of static and dynamic properties of ring melts are so unexpectedly successful despite having no small parameter justification. We also examine threading dynamics, and identify the threading order parameter that reflects the slowdown of the ring diffusion.