Chemical Relaxation of a Binary Mechanical Model System

TL;DR

This paper investigates a binary mechanical model system inspired by protein conformational states, analyzing its mechanical performance and identifying four phases analogous to muscle force transients.

Contribution

It introduces a novel binary mechanical model system with potential applications in biomechanics and analyzes its mechanical behavior during transient processes.

Findings

Four phases observed in muscle force transients are explained by the model.

The model links discrete chemical states to mechanical responses.

Transient analysis reveals four natural processes in the system.

Abstract

With potential relevance to biomechanics, an interesting problem in statistical mechanics not previously solved is a binary mechanical model system. Discrete chemical states of proteins are often associated with discrete metastable structural states, such that with a change in state a protein acts as a molecular switch. An ensemble of molecular switches that displace compliant elements equilibrated with an external force, F, constitutes a binary mechanical model system. As one in a series of publications developing this model, here I consider the mechanical performance of this system. Four processes naturally emerge from a transient analysis which are consistent with the four phases observed in a muscle force transient.