Studying proteins and polymers using knot theory

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 16:04:48 +0200

Many kinds of data in science and engineering is expressed in terms of point sets; literally a table consisting of numbers. Yet, in the real-world, continuous structures make their appearance in many shapes and forms. In particular, the structure of proteins or polymers can be described in terms of curves in 3-dimensional space. Where one finds curves, it is to be expected that entanglement plays a role. Indeed, according to the second law of thermodynamics, we cannot possibly expect for polymers to be structured in an ordered way: the probability for that to happen is rather low. Instead long polymer chains thread through one another, and its entanglement determines its properties. Entanglement is the reason a melt of long polymers behaves like honey rather than water.

Polymers on Disentangled

Studying proteins and polymers using knot theory