In this review, we provide an organized summary of the theoretical and computational
results that are available for polymers subject to spatial or topological constraints. Because …

Topological entanglement in polymers and biopolymers is a topic that involves different
fields of science such as chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics. One of the main …

The conformational statistics of ring polymers in melts or dense solutions is strongly affected
by their quenched microscopic topological state. The effect is particularly strong for …

Recent experiments showed that the linear double-stranded DNA in bacteriophage capsids
is both highly knotted and neatly structured. What is the physical basis of this organization …

Topologically constrained molecular systems are relevant to many areas of physics and
biology, from the collapse of a polymer gel to the existence of chromosome territories. As a …

In recent years, applications and experimental studies of DNA in nanochannels have
stimulated the investigation of the polymer physics of DNA in confinement. Recent advances …

Topological knots are found in a considerable number of protein structures, but it is not clear
how they knot and fold within the cellular environment. We investigated the behavior of …

The interplay between the topological and geometrical properties of a polymer ring can be
clarified by establishing the entanglement trapped in any portion (arc) of the ring. The task …

Biopolymers in vivo are typically subject to spatial restraints, either as a result of molecular
crowding in the cellular medium or of direct spatial confinement. DNA in living organisms …

It is well known that a jostled string tends to become knotted; yet the factors governing the
“spontaneous” formation of various knots are unclear. We performed experiments in which a …