1999/09/30 by Joseph S. Plewa, Thomas A. Witten
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Physical and Chemical Molecular Interactions #Chain (unit) #Lattice (music) #Material Dynamics and Properties #Monte Carlo method #Polymer #Radius of gyration #Ring (chemistry) #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Twist #Writhe #cond-mat.soft #q-bio.BM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.481639
Revised title, minor changes, updated references. 36 pages, including 14 figures. More formats available at http://rainbow.uchicago.edu/~plewa/webpaper/
arxiv created 2000/02/09 · openalex publication_date 2000/06/08 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We demonstrate a variant of the bond fluctuation lattice Monte Carlo model in which moves through cis conformations are forbidden. Ring polymers in this model have a conserved quantity that amounts to a topological linking number. Increased linking number reduces the radius of gyration mildly. A linking number of order 0.2 per bond leads to an 8% reduction of the radius for 128-bond chains. This percentage appears to rise with increasing chain length, contrary to expectation. For ring chains evolving without the conservation of linking number, we demonstrate a substantial anticorrelation between the twist and writhe variables whose sum yields the linking number. We raise the possibility that our observed anticorrelations may have counterparts in the most important practical polymer that conserves linking number, DNA.