694 research outputs found
Tightness of slip-linked polymer chains
We study the interplay between entropy and topological constraints for a
polymer chain in which sliding rings (slip-links) enforce pair contacts between
monomers. These slip-links divide a closed ring polymer into a number of
sub-loops which can exchange length between each other. In the ideal chain
limit, we find the joint probability density function for the sizes of segments
within such a slip-linked polymer chain (paraknot). A particular segment is
tight (small in size) or loose (of the order of the overall size of the
paraknot) depending on both the number of slip-links it incorporates and its
competition with other segments. When self-avoiding interactions are included,
scaling arguments can be used to predict the statistics of segment sizes for
certain paraknot configurations.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, REVTeX
Dark matter production from cosmic necklaces
Cosmic strings have gained a great interest, since they are formed in a large
class of brane inflationary models. The most interesting story is that cosmic
strings in brane models are distinguished in future cosmological observations.
If the strings in brane models are branes or superstrings that can move along
compactified space, and also if there are degenerated vacua along the
compactified space, kinks interpolate between degenerated vacua become
``beads'' on the strings. In this case, strings turn into necklaces. In the
case that the compact manifold in not simply connected, a string loop that
winds around a nontrivial circle is stable due to the topological reason. Since
the existence of the (quasi-)degenerated vacua and the nontrivial circle is a
common feature of the brane models, it is important to study cosmological
constraints on the cosmic necklaces and the stable winding states. In this
paper, we consider dark matter production from loops of the cosmic necklaces.
Our result suggests that necklaces can put stringent bound on certain kinds of
brane models.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, added many comments and 3 figures, accepted for
publication in JCA
Cosmic Necklaces from String Theory
We present the properties of a cosmic superstring network in the scenario of
flux compactification. An infinite family of strings, the (p,q)-strings, are
allowed to exist. The flux compactification leads to a string tension that is
periodic in 'p'. Monopoles, appearing here as beads on a string, are formed in
certain interactions in such networks. This allows bare strings to become
cosmic necklaces. We study network evolution in this scenario, outlining what
conditions are necessary to reach a cosmologically viable scaling solution. We
also analyze the physics of the beads on a cosmic necklace, and present general
conditions for which they will be cosmologically safe, leaving the network's
scaling undisturbed. In particular, we find that a large average loop size is
sufficient for the beads to be cosmologically safe. Finally, we argue that loop
formation will promote a scaling solution for the interbead distance in some
situations.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures; v3, typos corrected, comments added, published
versio
Spatial and topological organization of DNA chains induced by gene co-localization
Transcriptional activity has been shown to relate to the organization of
chromosomes in the eukaryotic nucleus and in the bacterial nucleoid. In
particular, highly transcribed genes, RNA polymerases and transcription factors
gather into discrete spatial foci called transcription factories. However, the
mechanisms underlying the formation of these foci and the resulting topological
order of the chromosome remain to be elucidated. Here we consider a
thermodynamic framework based on a worm-like chain model of chromosomes where
sparse designated sites along the DNA are able to interact whenever they are
spatially close-by. This is motivated by recurrent evidence that there exists
physical interactions between genes that operate together. Three important
results come out of this simple framework. First, the resulting formation of
transcription foci can be viewed as a micro-phase separation of the interacting
sites from the rest of the DNA. In this respect, a thermodynamic analysis
suggests transcription factors to be appropriate candidates for mediating the
physical interactions between genes. Next, numerical simulations of the polymer
reveal a rich variety of phases that are associated with different topological
orderings, each providing a way to increase the local concentrations of the
interacting sites. Finally, the numerical results show that both
one-dimensional clustering and periodic location of the binding sites along the
DNA, which have been observed in several organisms, make the spatial
co-localization of multiple families of genes particularly efficient.Comment: Figures and Supplementary Material freely available on
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.100067
Primordial black holes from cosmic necklaces
Cosmic necklaces are hybrid topological defects consisting of monopoles and
strings. We argue that primordial black holes(PBHs) may have formed from loops
of the necklaces, if there exist stable winding states, such as coils and
cycloops. Unlike the standard scenario of PBH formation from string loops, in
which the kinetic energy plays important role when strings collapse into black
holes, the PBH formation may occur in our scenario after necklaces have
dissipated their kinetic energy. Then, the significant difference appears in
the production ratio. In the standard scenario, the production ratio
becomes a tiny fraction , however it becomes in our
case. On the other hand, the typical mass of the PBHs is much smaller than the
standard scenario, if they are produced in the same epoch. As the two
mechanisms may work at the same time, the necklaces may have more than one
channel of the gravitational collapse. Although the result obtained in this
paper depends on the evolution of the dimensionless parameter , the
existence of the winding state could be a serious problem in some cases. Since
the existence of the winding state in brane models is due to the existence of a
non-tivial circle in the compactified space, the PBH formation can be used to
probe the structure of the compactified space. Black holes produced by this
mechanism may have peculiar properties.Comment: 22pages, 3 figures, added many comments, +1 figure, accepted for
publication in JHE
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