Title: MASTER EQUATION APPROACH TO PROTEIN FOLDING
Authors: M.Cieplak (Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, and College of Sciences, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland), M.Henkel (Laboratoire de Physique des Materiaux, Universite Henri Poincare Nancy I, F-54506 Vandoeuvre, France), J.R.Banavar (Department of Physics and Center for Materials Physics, 104 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802)

The dynamics of two 12-monomer heteropolymers on the square lattice is studied exactly within the master equation approach. The time evolution of the occupancy of the native state is determined. At low temperatures, the median folding time follows the Arrhenius law and is governed by the longest relaxation time. For both good and bad folders, significant kinetic traps appear in the folding funnel and the kinetics of the two kinds of folders are quite similar. What distinguishes between the good and bad folders are the differences in their thermodynamic stabilities.

Comments: Figs. 7, Refs. 17, Tabs. 0.