The Phase Diagram of Random Heteropolymers

TL;DR

This paper introduces an analytic cavity method to explore the phase diagram of random heteropolymers, revealing different glass transition scenarios influenced by sequence correlations, including abrupt and continuous freezing transitions.

Contribution

It presents a novel analytic approach using the cavity method to analyze the glass transition phenomena in heteropolymers based on sequence correlations.

Findings

Identification of two distinct glass transition scenarios

Discovery of a soft glass phase with continuous freezing

Analysis of the impact of sequence correlations on phase behavior

Abstract

We propose a new analytic approach to study the phase diagram of random heteropolymers, based on the cavity method. For copolymers we analyze the nature and phenomenology of the glass transition as a function of sequence correlations. Depending on these correlations, we find that two different scenarios for the glass transition can occur. We show that, beside the much studied possibility of an abrupt freezing transition at low temperature, the system can exhibit, upon cooling, a first transition to a soft glass phase with fully broken replica symmetry and a continuously growing degree of freezing as the temperature is lowered.