Abstract
The entanglement of ring polymers remains mysterious in many aspects. In this Letter, we use electric fields to induce self-entanglements in circular DNA molecules, which serve as a minimal system for studying chain entanglements. We show that self-threadings give rise to entanglements in ring polymers and can slow down polymer dynamics significantly. We find that strongly entangled circular molecules remain kinetically arrested in a compact state for very long times, thereby providing experimental evidence for the severe topological constraints imposed by threadings.
- Received 4 January 2019
- Revised 3 April 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.048002
© 2019 American Physical Society