Characterizing the asymmetry in hardness between synthesis and destruction of heteropolymers

Abstract

We present a simple model describing the assembly and disassembly of heteropolymers consisting of two types of monomers $A$ and $B$. We prove that no matter how we manipulate the concentrations of $A$ and $B$, it takes longer than the exponential function of $d$ to synthesize a fixed amount of the desired heteropolymer, where $d$ is the number of $A$-$B$ connections. We also prove the decomposition time is linear for chain length $n$. When $d$ is proportional to $n$, synthesis and destruction have an exponential asymmetry. Our findings may facilitate research on the more general asymmetry of operational hardness.