The deformation-induced condensation demonstrated in our simulations requires PE chains to be constrained by both ends. We, therefore, hypothesize that the deformation-induced changes in the condensation profiles should not occur in solutions of PE chains or in dangling chains of a hydrogel that does not contribute to the elasticity of the hydrogel. To test this idea, we run additional MD simulations for a PE solution containing free PAA chains at its overlap concentration (i.e., ϕ * ≈ N/R 3 0 ). In the simulation box, n = 24 10-mer PAA chains solvated by a similar number of water molecules as in our hydrogel simulations. The chains are in physical contact with each other at the overlap concentration , but they are not cross-linked (see Figure ). In these simulations, we deform the simulation box to obtain box dimensions similar to the compressive and extensive deformations in the hydrogel simulation. The simulation box containing the solution does not change its total volume, and thus, the concentration of polymer monomers and ions does not change. In the deformation simulations, while the individual chains change their orientation to adjust new box dimensions, the fraction of condensed counterions per chain does not change both in compression and stretching case (see Figure ). Consistently, the endto-end chain distance does not change as the simulation box is deformed. Consequently, the deformation simulations with a PE solution confirm that PE chains constrained by the hydrogel's network 3d topology are the main driving reason for the observed condensation profiles in deformed hydrogels.