Comment on "Writhe formulas and antipodal points in plectonemic DNA configurations"

Abstract

We point out that the disagreement between the paper by Neukirch and Starostin [S. Neukirch and E. L. Starostin, Phys. Rev. E 78, 041912 (2008)] and ours [J. Samuel, S. Sinha, and A. Ghosh, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 18, S253 (2006)] is only apparent and stems from a difference in approach. Neukirch and Starostin are concerned with classical elasticity and individual curves while we focus on statistical averages over curves.