Protein folding on rugged energy landscapes: Conformational diffusion on fractal networks

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We employ simulations of model proteins to study folding on rugged energy landscapes. We construct ``first-passage'' networks as the system transitions from unfolded to native states. The nodes and bonds in these networks correspond to basins and transitions between them in the energy landscape. We find power-laws between the folding time and number of nodes and bonds. We show that these scalings are determined by the fractal properties of first-passage networks. Reliable folding is possible in systems with rugged energy landscapes because first passage networks have small fractal dimension.