Transition paths in Potts-like energy landscapes: general properties and application to protein sequence models

Abstract

We study transition paths in energy landscapes over multi-categorical Potts configurations using the mean-field approach introduced by Mauri et al., {\em Phys Rev Lett 130, 158402 (2023)}. Paths interpolate between two fixed configurations or are anchored at one extremity only. We characterize the properties of `good' transition paths realizing a trade-off between exploring low-energy regions in the landscape and being not too long, such as their entropy or the probability of escape from a region of the landscape. We unveil the existence of a phase transition separating a regime in which paths are stretched in between their anchors, from another regime, where paths can explore the energy landscape more globally to minimize the energy. This phase transition is first illustrated and studied in detail on a mathematically tractable Hopfield-Potts toy model, then studied in energy landscapes inferred from protein-sequence data.