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Introduction

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Topological Interactions in Ring Polymers

Part of the book series: Springer Theses ((Springer Theses))

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Abstract

Polymers are ubiquitous in Nature. They consist of a collection of many simple units (from the Greek word for “many” poly and for “unit” mer) and because of this, they are among the most simple examples of physical cooperativity. Polymers are made of repetitive patterns which make them easy to design, while their length can reach the million of units. Polymers can be thought of as very early examples of self-replicating objects: Given a single unit (a monomer) and enough substrate to form more units, a long sequence of monomers is bound to appear and eventually this can even break up forming many copies of itself. Nature has exploited this self-replicating ability by giving polymers a central role in Biology.

Io stimo piú il trovar un vero, benché di cosa leggiera, che’l disputar lungamente delle massime questioni senza conseguir veritá nissuna.

G. Galilei

I prefer finding something true, although of small importance, rather than keep debating on the major issues failing to achieve any truth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Davide Michieletto

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  1. Davide Michieletto
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Correspondence to Davide Michieletto .

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Michieletto, D. (2016). Introduction. In: Topological Interactions in Ring Polymers. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41042-5_1

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