| Abstract
| - We consider an ideal chain with fixed ends which passes through aslip-link situated midwayon the axis connecting the ends. When the chain is long enough,the system exhibits bistability: inequilibrium the number of segments on the two sides of the slip-linkdiffer. We show that introducingadditional geometrical constraints (i.e., having the polymer inside twoadjacent boxes connected by aslip-link) changes the situation: The shape of the boxes determineswhether the asymmetry persists.For boxes elongated along the axis, the situation is symmetric,whereas for flat boxes, bistability mayoccur.
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