SIMPLE THEORY AND MONTE-CARLO SIMULATIONS FOR RECOGNITION BETWEEN RANDOM HETEROPOLYMERS AND DISORDERED SURFACES

We study the adsorption of random heteropolymers (RHPs) on disordered multifunctional surfaces. Recent replica calculations suggest that whe n the static tics describing the sequence distribution and the surface site distributions are related in a special way, a first-order adsorp tion transition occurs in such systems. This phenomenon of recognition between RHPs and disordered surfaces due to statistical pattern match ing is studied via Monte Carlo simulations and a simple nonreplica the ory, The theory serves to elucidate the simulation results, and sugges ts that the origin of the first-order adsorption transition is the sup pression of loop fluctuations due to competing interactions and the qu enched disorder (i.e., frustration). (C) 1998 American Institute of Ph ysics. [S0021-9606(98)51504-8].