Abstract
We study the hydrodynamic transport of knotted ring polymers through
modulated channels, establishing that the transport velocity is strongly dependent on the ring
topology for Peclet numbers smaller than unity. As soon as convection dominates, transport
properties become insensitive to the presence and type of knots. We identify two distinct modes
of transport, corresponding to the motion being led by the knotted or unknotted portions of the
ring, most surprisingly without impact on separation efficiency. The modes can be selected by
the channel geometry, and this could be harnessed to design nanofluidic devices for the
continuous topological sorting of entangled biopolymers.