Polymer Structure, Dynamics, and Topology: From Explicit-Solvent Solutions to Sticky-Growth Globules
Ashish Kumar Singh (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati)
We are interested in how polymer architecture and solvent conditions affect polymer behavior, and how compactness relates to knotting. First, we study dilute linear and ring polymers using dissipative particle dynamics with explicit hydrodynamic interactions. Although ring polymers have an additional closure constraint, our results show that solvent quality has a stronger influence under the conditions studied: polymers remain dispersed and mobile in good solvent, while poor-solvent attractions promote partially collapsed aggregates and slower dynamics. We are also studying globular structures generated using a history-dependent, self-avoiding sticky random walk on a three-dimensional lattice. Increasing the stickiness produces more compact structures, with fractal dimensions above 2 and lower knotting measures than ordinary self-avoiding walks. This work helps us explore the relationship between compactness and topology.