Slow Energy Relaxation of Macromolecules and Nanoclusters in Solution

2005/03/31 by Francesco Piazza, Paolo De Los Rios, Yves‐Henri Sanejouand +1 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Protein Structure and Dynamics #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #cond-mat.stat-mech #q-bio.BM

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.94.145502

published as Physical Review Letters, 94, 145502 (2005) · 5 pages, 3 figures

openalex publication_date 2005/04/12 · arxiv created 2005/05/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Many systems in the realm of nanophysics from both the living and the inorganic world display slow relaxation kinetics of energy fluctuations. In this Letter we propose a general explanation for such a phenomenon, based on the effects of interactions with the solvent. Within a simple harmonic model of the system fluctuations, we demonstrate that the inhomogeneity of coupling to the solvent of the bulk and surface atoms suffices to generate a complex spectrum of decay rates. We show for myoglobin and for a metal nanocluster that the result is a complex, nonexponential relaxation dynamics.

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