Existence of free energy landscape in linear homopolymers

Abstract

We observe the existence of free energy landscape as a function of end-to-end distance in linear homopolymers. For different temperatures, we find that the equilibrium free energy landscape of homopolymers as a function of end-to-end distance closely resembles a recent investigation (Imparato A., Luccioli S. and Torcini A. Phys. Rev. Lett., 99 (2007) 168101) of a mechanically unfolded model protein. Our exact enumeration study provides a new link between the theory of protein folding and polymers. © 2008 Europhysics Letters Association.