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The topological glass

Speaker:

Abstract

Ring polymers represent one of the last major theoretical challenges facing polymer physics. The essential difficulty lies in the non- local nature of the topological constraint associated with polymers of fixed topology, such as rings (unknots), that cannot cross one-another. We perform molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations of ring polymers and propose methods to identify inter-ring threadings. We find evidence of the emergence of a percolating cluster of inter-ring penetrations which we interpret a the onset of a jammed state that we call a topological glass.

The topological glass

Venue

Higgs Centre Seminar Room, JCMB (Find us on campus maps)
The Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics
School of Physics and Astronomy
James Clerk Maxwell Building, 4305
Peter Guthrie Tait Road
Edinburgh
EH9 3FD
UK