Issue EPL
Volume 107, Number 2, July 2014
Article Number 28004
Number of page(s) 6
Section Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/107/28004
Published online 15 July 2014
EPL, 107 (2014) 28004
Structure and selection in an autocatalytic binary polymer model
Shinpei Tanaka1, Harold Fellermann2,3 and Steen Rasmussen2,4
1 Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University - 1-7-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521, Japan
2 Center for Fundamental Living Technology (FLinT) Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark - Campusvej 55 5230 Odense M, Denmark
3 School of Computing Science, Newcastle University - Claremont Tower, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
4 Santa Fe Institute - 1399 Hyde Park Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
Received: 17 March 2014
Accepted: 20 June 2014
Abstract
An autocatalytic binary polymer system is studied as an abstract model for a chemical reaction network capable to evolve. Due to autocatalysis, long polymers appear spontaneously and their concentration is shown to be maintained at the same level as that of monomers. When the reaction starts from a pool of monomers, highly ordered populations with particular sequence patterns are dynamically selected out of a vast number of possible states. The interplay between the selected microscopic sequence patterns and the macroscopic cooperative structures is examined both analytically and in simulation. Stability, fluctuations, and dynamic selection mechanisms are investigated for the involved self-organizing processes.
PACS: 87.23.Kg – Dynamics of evolution / 05.65.+b – Self-organized systems / 87.23.Cc – Population dynamics and ecological pattern formation
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