The statistical mechanics of the two-dimensional hydrogen-bonding self-avoiding walk including solvent effects

Abstract

A two-dimensional square-lattice model for the formation of secondary structures in proteins, the hydrogen-bonding model, is extended to include the effects of solvent quality. This is achieved by allowing configuration-dependent nearest-neighbour interactions. The phase diagram is presented, and found to have a much richer variety of phases than either the pure hydrogen-bonding self-avoiding walk model or the standard $\Theta$-point model.Comment: 23 pages 15 figure