Parallelism and Time in Hierarchical Self-Assembly

Published on: 2012/01/17

Abstract

The abstract Tile Assembly Model examines a single tile-based crystal as it forms from a seed within an inexhaustible bath of free tiles. But in solution, many crystals may grow in parallel, and if they interact with each other by self-assembly, it is natural to think that this parallelism could be exploited to grow well-defined structures much more quickly. Somewhat remarkably, and counter-intuitively, the authors show that if basic elements of chemical kinetics are taken into account (low concentration species encounter each other less frequently than high concentration species) then the parallelism of hierarchical self-assembly provides no advantage at all (caveat, caveat). If you want to build large complex things quickly, look elsewhere.

Authors

Ho-Lin Chen and David Doty

File

http://www.dna.caltech.edu/Papers/hierarchical_SODA2012.pdf