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. 2022 Nov 28;55(23):10723–10736. doi: 10.1021/acs.macromol.2c01264

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© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society

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Schematic picture of a single ring polymer conformation (green line) in a melt which double-folds around its tree-like backbone. The crosses (×) represent the lattice of topological obstacles created by the surrounding rings in the melt. The lattice spacing is on the order of the tube diameter d_T, and the polymer contour length inside each unit cell is . Random displacements of the loops protruding from the mean path on the backbone of the branched structure (thick black line) change the ring’s shape and dominate melt dynamics at long time scales.^7,16

Inline graphic — Schematic picture of a single ring polymer conformation (green line) in a melt which double-folds around its tree-like backbone. The crosses (×) represent the lattice of topological obstacles created by the surrounding rings in the melt. The lattice spacing is on the order of the tube diameter d_T, and the polymer contour length inside each unit cell is . Random displacements of the loops protruding from the mean path on the backbone of the branched structure (thick black line) change the ring’s shape and dominate melt dynamics at long time scales.^7,16