Topology And Geometry In Polymer Science

This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications TOPOLOGY AND GEOMETRY IN POLYMER SCIENCE is based on the proceedings of a very successful one-week workshop with the same title. This workshop was an integral part of the 1995-1996 IMA program on "Mathematical Methods in Materials Science." We would like to thank Stuart G. Whittington, De Witt Sumners, and Timothy Lodge for their excellent work as organizers of the meeting and for editing the proceedings. We also take this opportunity to thank the National Science Foun dation (NSF), the Army Research Office (ARO) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), whose financial support made the workshop possible. A vner Friedman Robert Gulliver v PREFACE This book is the product of a workshop on Topology and Geometry of Polymers, held at the IMA in June 1996. The workshop brought together topologists, combinatorialists, theoretical physicists and polymer scientists, who share an interest in characterizing and predicting the microscopic en tanglement properties of polymers, and their effect on macroscopic physical properties.

This book provides a comprehensive description of topological polymers, an emerging research area in polymer science and polymer materials engineering. The precision polymer topology designing is critical to realizing the unique polymer properties and functions leading to their eventual applications. The prominent contributors are led by Principal Editor Yasuyuki Tezuka and Co-Editor Tetsuo Deguchi. Important ongoing achievements and anticipated breakthroughs in topological polymers are presented with an emphasis on the spectacular diversification of polymer constructions. The book serves readers collectively to acquire comprehensive insights over exciting innovations ongoing in topological polymer chemistry, encompassing topological geometry analysis, classification, physical characterization by simulation and the eventual chemical syntheses, with the supplementary focus on the polymer folding, invoked with the ongoing breakthrough of the precision AI prediction of protein folding. The current revolutionary developments in synthetic approaches specifically for single cyclic (ring) polymers and the topology-directed properties/functions uncovered thereby are outlined as a showcase example. This book is especially beneficial to academic personnel in universities and to researchers working in relevant institutions and companies. Although the level of the book is advanced, it can serve as a good reference book for graduate students and postdocs as a source of valuable knowledge of cutting-edge topics and progress in polymer chemistry.

Plastics, films, and synthetic fibers are among typical examples of polymer materials fabricated industrially in massive quantities as the basis of modern social life. By comparison, polymers from biological resources, including proteins, DNAs, and cotton fibers, are essential in various processes in living systems. Such polymers are molecular substances, constituted by the linking of hundreds to tens of thousands of small chemical unit (monomer) components. Thus, the form of polymer molecules is frequently expressed by line geometries, and their linear and non-linear forms are believed to constitute the fundamental basis for their properties and functions. In the field of polymer chemistry and polymer materials science, the choice of macromolecules has continuously been extended from linear or randomly branched forms toward a variety of precisely controlled topologies by the introduction of intriguing synthetic techniques. Moreover, during the first decade of this century, a number of impressive breakthroughs have been achieved to produce an important class of polymers having a variety of cyclic and multicyclic topologies. These developments now offer unique opportunities in polymer materials design to create unique properties and functions based on the form, i.e., topology, of polymer molecules. The introduction and application of topological geometry (soft geometry) to polymer molecules is a crucial requirement to account for the basic geometrical properties of polymer chains uniquely flexible in nature, in contrast to small chemical compounds conceived upon Euclidian geometry (hard geometry) principles. Topological geometry and graph theory are introduced for the systematic classification and notation of the non-linear constructions of polymer molecules, including not only branched but also single cyclic and multicyclic polymer topologies. On that basis, the geometrical–topological relationship between different polymers having distinctive constructions is discussed. A unique conception of topological isomerism is thus formed, which contrasts with that of conventional constitutional and stereoisomerism occurring in small chemical compounds. Through the close collaboration of topology experts Shimokawa and Ishihara and the polymer chemist Tezuka, this monograph covers the fundamentals and selected current topics of topology applied in polymers and topological polymer chemistry. In particular, the aim is to provide novel insights jointly revealed through a unique interaction between mathematics (topology) and polymer materials science.

This book presents the most important advances in the class of topological materials and discusses the topological characterization, modeling and metrology of materials. Further, it addresses currently emerging characterization techniques such as optical and acoustic, vibrational spectroscopy (Brillouin, infrared, Raman), electronic, magnetic, fluorescence correlation imaging, laser lithography, small angle X-ray and neutron scattering and other techniques, including site-selective nanoprobes. The book analyzes the topological aspects to identify and quantify these effects in terms of topology metrics. The topological materials are ubiquitous and range from (i) de novo nanoscale allotropes of carbons in various forms such as nanotubes, nanorings, nanohorns, nanowalls, peapods, graphene, etc. to (ii) metallo-organic frameworks, (iii) helical gold nanotubes, (iv) Möbius conjugated polymers, (v) block co-polymers, (vi) supramolecular assemblies, to (vii) a variety of biological and soft-matter systems, e.g. foams and cellular materials, vesicles of different shapes and genera, biomimetic membranes, and filaments, (viii) topological insulators and topological superconductors, (ix) a variety of Dirac materials including Dirac and Weyl semimetals, as well as (x) knots and network structures. Topological databases and algorithms to model such materials have been also established in this book. In order to understand and properly characterize these important emergent materials, it is necessary to go far beyond the traditional paradigm of microscopic structure–property–function relationships to a paradigm that explicitly incorporates topological aspects from the outset to characterize and/or predict the physical properties and currently untapped functionalities of these advanced materials. Simulation and modeling tools including quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, 3D visualization and tomography are also indispensable. These concepts have found applications in condensed matter physics, materials science and engineering, physical chemistry and biophysics, and the various topics covered in the book have potential applications in connection with novel synthesis techniques, sensing and catalysis. As such, the book offers a unique resource for graduate students and researchers alike.

This monograph represents an extension of the author's original PhD thesis and includes a more thorough discussion on the concepts and mathematics behind his research works on the foam model, as applied to studying issues of phase stability and elasticity for various non-closed packed structures found in fuzzy and colloidal crystals, as well as on a renormalization-group analysis regarding the critical behavior of loop polymers upon which topological constraints are imposed. The common thread behind these two research works is their demonstration of the importance and effectiveness of utilizing geometrical and topological concepts for modeling and understanding soft systems undergoing phase transitions.

Topology is becoming increasingly important in chemistry because of its rapidly growing number of applications. Here, its many uses are reviewed and the authors anticipate what future developments might bring. This work shows how significant new insights can be gained by representing molecular species as topological structures known as topographs. The text explores carbon structures, establishing how the stability of fullerene species can be accounted for and also predicting which fullerenes will be most stable. It is pointed out that molecular topology, rather than molecular geometry, characterizes molecular shape and various tools for shape characterization are described. Several of the fascinating ideas that arise from regarding topology as a unifying principle in chemical bonding theory are discussed, and in particular, the novel concept of the molecular topoid is shown to have numerous uses. The topological description of polymers is examined and the reader is gently guided through the realms of branched and tangled polymers. Overall, this work outlines the fact that topology is not only a theoretical discipline but also one that has practical applications and high relevance to the whole domain of chemistry.

Geometry and topology are subjects generally considered to be "pure" mathematics. Recently, however, some of the methods and results in these two areas have found new utility in both wet-lab science (biology and chemistry) and theoretical physics. Conversely, science is influencing mathematics, from posing questions that call for the construction of mathematical models to exporting theoretical methods of attack on long-standing problems of mathematical interest. Based on an AMS Short Course held in January 1992, this book contains six introductory articles on these intriguing new connections. There are articles by a chemist and a biologist about mathematics, and four articles by mathematicians writing about science and mathematics involved. Because this book communicates the excitement and utility of mathematics research at an elementary level, it is an excellent textbook in an advanced undergraduate mathematics course.

There are examples aplenty in the macroscopic world that demonstrate the form of objects directing their functions and properties. On the other hand, the fabrication of extremely small objects having precisely defined structures has only recently become an attractive challenge, which is now opening the door to nanoscience and nanotechnology.In the field of synthetic polymer chemistry, a number of critical breakthroughs have been achieved during the first decade of this century to produce an important class of polymers having a variety of cyclic and multicyclic topologies. These developments now offer unique opportunities in polymer materials design to create unprecedented properties and functions simply based on the form, i.e. topology, of polymer molecules.In this book on topological polymer chemistry, the important developments in this growing area will be collected for the first time, with particular emphasis on new conceptual insights for polymer chemistry and polymer materials. The book will systematically review topological polymer chemistry from basic aspects to practice, and give a broad overview of cyclic polymers covering new synthesis, structure characterization, basic properties/functions and the eventual applications.

Although contact geometry and topology is briefly discussed in V I Arnol''d''s book Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics (Springer-Verlag, 1989, 2nd edition), it still remains a domain of research in pure mathematics, e.g. see the recent monograph by H Geiges An Introduction to Contact Topology (Cambridge U Press, 2008). Some attempts to use contact geometry in physics were made in the monograph Contact Geometry and Nonlinear Differential Equations (Cambridge U Press, 2007). Unfortunately, even the excellent style of this monograph is not sufficient to attract the attention of the physics community to this type of problems. This book is the first serious attempt to change the existing status quo. In it we demonstrate that, in fact, all branches of theoretical physics can be rewritten in the language of contact geometry and topology: from mechanics, thermodynamics and electrodynamics to optics, gauge fields and gravity; from physics of liquid crystals to quantum mechanics and quantum computers, etc. The book is written in the style of famous Landau-Lifshitz (L-L) multivolume course in theoretical physics. This means that its readers are expected to have solid background in theoretical physics (at least at the level of the L-L course). No prior knowledge of specialized mathematics is required. All needed new mathematics is given in the context of discussed physical problems. As in the L-L course some problems/exercises are formulated along the way and, again as in the L-L course, these are always supplemented by either solutions or by hints (with exact references). Unlike the L-L course, though, some definitions, theorems, and remarks are also presented. This is done with the purpose of stimulating the interest of our readers in deeper study of subject matters discussed in the text.

Energy of knots is a theory that was introduced to create a OC canonical configurationOCO of a knot OCo a beautiful knot which represents its knot type. This book introduces several kinds of energies, and studies the problem of whether or not there is a OC canonical configurationOCO of a knot in each knot type. It also considers this problems in the context of conformal geometry. The energies presented in the book are defined geometrically. They measure the complexity of embeddings and have applications to physical knotting and unknotting through numerical experiments. Contents: In Search of the OC Optimal EmbeddingOCO of a Knot: -Energy Functional E (); On E (2); L p Norm Energy with Higher Index; Numerical Experiments; Stereo Pictures of E (2) Minimizers; Energy of Knots in a Riemannian Manifold; Physical Knot Energies; Energy of Knots from a Conformal Geometric Viewpoint: Preparation from Conformal Geometry; The Space of Non-Trivial Spheres of a Knot; The Infinitesimal Cross Ratio; The Conformal Sin Energy E sin (c) Measure of Non-Trivial Spheres; Appendices: Generalization of the Gauss Formula for the Linking Number; The 3-Tuple Map to the Set of Circles in S 3; Conformal Moduli of a Solid Torus; Kirchhoff Elastica; Open Problems and Dreams. Readership: Graduate students and researchers in geometry & topology and numerical & computational mathematics."