Chemical Relaxation of a Binary Mechanical Model 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.