Related papers: Optimal size for emergence of self-replicating pol…
In previous work, RAF theory has been developed as a tool for making theoretical progress on the origin of life question, providing insight into the structure and occurrence of self-sustaining and collectively autocatalytic sets within…
Motivated by nucleation and molecular aggregation in physical, chemical and biological settings, we present an extension to a thorough analysis of the stochastic self-assembly of a fixed number of identical particles in a finite volume. We…
Far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics underpins the emergence of life, but how has been a long-outstanding puzzle. Best candidate theories based on the maximum entropy production principle could not be unequivocally proven, in part due to…
We study the ability to maintain information in a population of reacting polymers under the influence of decay, i.e., spontaneous breakdown of large polymers. At a certain decay rate, it becomes impossible to maintain a significant…
We show that in a particular model of catalytic reaction systems, known as the binary polymer model, there is a mathematical invariance between two versions of the model: (1) random catalysis and (2) template-based catalysis. In particular,…
We study the dynamics of a system made up of particles of two different species undergoing irreversible quadratic autocatalytic reactions: $A + B \to 2A$. We especially focus on the reaction velocity and on the average time at which the…
A fundamental problem in protobiological dynamics is to understand how chemically generated polymers can form persistent sequence distributions before the emergence of replication. We study deterministic polymer growth in which each finite…
A generalized autocatalytic model for chiral polymerization is investigated in detail. Apart from enantiomeric cross-inhibition, the model allows for the autogenic (non-catalytic) formation of left and right-handed monomers from a substrate…
Self-replicability is the unique attribute observed in all the living organisms and the question how the life was physically initiated could be equivalent to the question how self-replicating informative polymers were formed in the abiotic…
Dimerization and subsequent aggregation of polymers and biopolymers often occur under nonequilibrium conditions. When the initial state of the polymer is not collapsed or the final folded native state, the dynamics of dimerization can…
Self-assembly of proteins is a biological phenomenon which gives rise to spontaneous formation of amyloid fibrils or polymers. The starting point of this phase, called nucleation exhibits an important variability among replicated…
Reduction of information entropy along with ever-increasing complexity are among the key signatures of living matter. Understanding the onset of such behavior in early prebiotic world is essential for solving the problem of origins of life.…
We report molecular dynamics simulations of a system of repulsive, polymer-tethered colloidal particles. We use an explicit polymer model to explore how the length and the behavior of the polymer (ideal or self-avoiding) affect the ability…
We investigate a reversible polymerization process in which individual polymers aggregate and fragment at a rate proportional to their molecular weight. We find a nonequilibrium phase transition despite the fact that the dynamics are…
Synthetic and biological living polymers are self-assembling chains whose chain length distributions (CLDs) are dynamic. We show these dynamics are ultrasensitive: even a small perturbation (e.g. temperature jump) non-linearly distorts the…
In the presented work we study, by means of numerical simulations, the behaviour of a suspension of active ring polymers in the bulk and under lateral confinement. When changing the separation between the confining planes and the polymers'…
In this paper we consider in detail the connection between the problem of a polymer in a random medium and that of a quantum particle in a random potential. We are interested in a system of finite volume where the polymer is known to be…
A stochastic system of particles is considered in which the sizes of the particles increase by successive binary mergers with the constraint that each coagulation event involves a particle with minimal size. Convergence of a suitably…
The process of dimerization, in which two monomers bind to each other and form a dimer, is common in nature. This process can be modeled using rate equations, from which the average copy numbers of the reacting monomers and of the product…
We study the dynamics of an ideal polymer chain in a crowded, viscoelastic medium and in the presence of active forces. The motion of the centre of mass and of individual monomers is calculated. On time scales that are comparable to the…