Intrinsic Curvature Controls Spontaneous Entanglement of Elastic Rods
Abstract
We report results from an experimental investigation on the role of intrinsic curvature in the spontaneous entanglement of elastic rods subjected to controlled tumbling. We examine two distinct entanglement mechanisms, knotting and locking, in a statistical ensemble of straight and helical rods with varying arc length and natural curvature. Our primary finding is that natural curvature exerts a dominant, non-monotonic influence on knotting, with a critical curvature that suppresses knot formation and significantly reduces the probability of knotting relative to equivalent straight rods. In contrast, locking is largely insensitive to curvature and scales primarily with rod length. These results, obtained for the macroscopic experimental system studied here, identify geometric parameters that govern distinct entanglement modes in tumbled elastic rods and may inform entanglement processes in microscopic filamentary systems such as DNA.
Related
- Spontaneous Motion Generates Reversible Nonreciprocity in an Achiral Active Elastic Ring
- Boundary shape controls the stress distribution in two-component elastic materials
- Impact of localized 4f magnetism on Berry curvature and the intrinsic anomalous Hall effect in CeRu2Si2
- The elasticity of semiflexible polymers with reversible spontaneous curvature in two dimensions
- Timelike Entanglement First Law and Linearized Field Equations in Higher Curvature Gravity
BibTeX
@misc{derveni2026intrinsic,
title = {{Intrinsic Curvature Controls Spontaneous Entanglement of Elastic Rods}},
author = {Fani Derveni and Javier Sabater and Pedro M. Reis},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.27342},
eprint = {2610.27342},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.27342},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Intrinsic Curvature Controls Spontaneous Entanglement of Elastic Rods
AU - Fani Derveni
AU - Javier Sabater
AU - Pedro M. Reis
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.27342
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.27342
AB - We report results from an experimental investigation on the role of intrinsic curvature in the spontaneous entanglement of elastic rods subjected to controlled tumbling. We examine two distinct entanglement mechanisms, knotting and locking, in a statistical ensemble of straight and helical rods with varying arc length and natural curvature. Our primary finding is that natural curvature exerts a dominant, non-monotonic influence on knotting, with a critical curvature that suppresses knot formation and significantly reduces the probability of knotting relative to equivalent straight rods. In contrast, locking is largely insensitive to curvature and scales primarily with rod length. These results, obtained for the macroscopic experimental system studied here, identify geometric parameters that govern distinct entanglement modes in tumbled elastic rods and may inform entanglement processes in microscopic filamentary systems such as DNA.
ER -