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Updated: May 14, 2026

Flexural Rigidity Measurements of Biopolymers Using Gliding Assays
Published on: November 9, 2012
Effect of Bending Rigidity on the Knotting of a Polymer under Tension
Richard Matthews1, Ard A Louis, Christos N Likos
1Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna , Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
A coarse-grained computational model is used to investigate how the bending rigidity of a polymer under tension affects the formation of a trefoil knot. Thermodynamic integration techniques are applied to demonstrate that the free-energy cost of forming a knot has a minimum at nonzero bending rigidity. The position of the minimum exhibits a power-law dependence on the applied tension. For knotted polymers with nonuniform bending rigidity, the knots preferentially localize in the region with a bending rigidity that minimizes the free energy.
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