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Equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical physics of the power stroke in skeletal muscles
The classical Huxley-Simmons model of muscle contractions exhibits
unusual statistical properties due to the presence of long range
elastic interactions. Those include non-equivalence of the soft and
hard device ensembles, negative equilibrium stiffness and
anomalously slow kinetics in the soft device. Our data fit for
actual skeletal muscles indicates that the physiological power
stroke mechanism operates very close to the critical point. To show
that the prediction of near criticality is robust we consider a
generalization of the Huxley-Simmons model where hard spins are
replaced by soft ones and individual cross-bridges are elastically
coupled. We also show that in the presence of the ATP, represented
by a correlated component of the noise, the power stroke alone can
drive muscle contraction along passive actin filaments.
Séminaire du laboratoire Gulliver