Frozen Phases of Random Heteropolymers in Disordered Media

Abstract

We consider the behavior of random heteropolymers (RHP's) in random media via Monte Carlo simulations. When the bare heteropolymer prefers unlike segments to be adjacent to each other, the disordered medium induces rather unusual behavior. As temperature is scanned, we find two frozen phases with different “folding” patterns separated by a reentrant phase. The phenomena revealed by our results are elucidated on physical grounds, experimental tests are suggested, and the agreement between the simulation results and a simple analytical calculation is discussed.