# gst: periodic oscillations of flexible knots

AA << study the dynamics of knotted deformable closed chains sedimenting in a viscous fluid. (..) trefoil and other torus knots often attain a remarkably regular horizontal toroidal structure while sedimenting, with a number of intertwined loops, oscillating periodically around each other. (..) this motion (..) is accompanied by a very slow rotation around the vertical symmetry axis. (..) this oscillating mode of the dynamics can spontaneously form even when starting from a qualitatively different initial configuration. (..) the oscillating modes are usually present as transients or final stages of the evolution, depending on chain aspect ratio and flexibility, and the number of loops. >>

Magdalena Gruziel, Krishnan Thyagarajan, et al. Periodic Motion of Sedimenting Flexible Knots. Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 127801 Sep 18,  2018. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.127801.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.127801

The periodic motion of flexible knots, and the connection to DNA. University of Warsaw. Sep 26, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-09-periodic-motion-flexible-dna.html