NPAC Technical Report SCCS-382

Random self-interacting chains: a mechanism for protein folding

Giulia Iori, Enzo Marinari, Giorgio Parisi

Submitted July 23 1991


Abstract

We investigate by Monte Carlo simulations the thermodynamic behavior of a linear heteropolymer in which the interaction between different monomers contains a quenched random component. We show the existence, along with the usual coil and globule ones, of a new phase, the folded phase, characterised by long relaxation times and by the existence of few stable states.


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