Optimal size for emergence of self-replicating polymer system

Abstract

A biological system consists of a variety of polymers that are synthesized from monomers, by catalysis that exists only for some long polymers. It is important to elucidate the emergence and sustenance of such autocatalytic polymerization. We analyze here the stochastic polymerization reaction dynamics, to investigate the transition time from a state with almost no catalysts to a state with sufficient catalysts. We found an optimal volume that minimizes this transition time, which agrees with the inverse of the catalyst concentration at the unstable fixed point that separates the two states, as is theoretically explained. Relevance to the origin of life is also discussed.