Graph theoretical analysis of the energy landscape of model polymers

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2009 Jul;80(1 Pt 1):011905. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.011905. Epub 2009 Jul 2.

Abstract

In systems characterized by a rough potential-energy landscape, local energetic minima and saddles define a network of metastable states whose topology strongly influences the dynamics. Changes in temperature, causing the merging and splitting of metastable states, have nontrivial effects on such networks and must be taken into account. We do this by means of a recently proposed renormalization procedure. This method is applied to analyze the topology of the network of metastable states for different polypeptidic sequences in a minimalistic polymer model. A smaller spectral dimension emerges as a hallmark of stability of the global energy minimum and highlights a nonobvious link between dynamic and thermodynamic properties.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Hot Temperature
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Rotation
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • Polymers