  We examine the nonequilibrium production of topological defects -- braids --
in semiflexible filament bundles under cycles of compression and tension.
During these cycles, the period of compression facilitates the thermally
activated pair production of braid/anti-braid pairs, which then may separate
when the bundle is under tension. As result, appropriately tuned alternating
periods of compression and extension should lead to the proliferation of braid
defects in a bundle so that linear density of these pairs far exceeds that
expected in thermal equilibrium. Secondly, we examine the slow extension of
braided bundles under tension, showing that their end-to-end length creeps
nonmonotonically under a fixed force due to braid deformation and the motion of
the braid pair along the bundle. We conclude with a few speculations regarding
experiments on semiflexible filament bundles and their networks.
