title: Fractal globules: a new approach to artificial molecular machines.
abstract: The over-damped relaxation of elastic networks constructed by contact maps of hierarchically folded fractal (crumpled) polymer globules was investigated in detail. It was found that the relaxation dynamics of an anisotropic fractal globule is very similar to the behavior of biological molecular machines like motor proteins. When it is perturbed, the system quickly relaxes to a low-dimensional manifold, M, with a large basin of attraction and then slowly approaches equilibrium, not escaping M. Taking these properties into account, it is suggested that fractal globules, even those made by synthetic polymers, are artificial molecular machines that can transform perturbations into directed quasimechanical motion along a defined path.
authors.affiliation: N. N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Department of Applied Mathematics, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. Electronic address: vladik.avetisov@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Vladik A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Avetisov
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics of the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Viktor A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Ivanov
authors.affiliation: N. N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Dmitry A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Meshkov
authors.affiliation: Université Paris-Sud/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire de Physique Theorique et Modèles Statistiques, Orsay, France; P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Department of Applied Mathematics, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Sergei K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Nechaev
mesh_terms: D032701:Biomimetics; D004548:Elasticity; D017709:Fractals; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins; D011108:Polymers