Dynamical aspects of helix-coil transitions in polypeptides. I

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Abstract
A dynamical theory for the helix‐coil transitions in polypeptides with finite length, which has the following specific features, is presented. (1) It includes size effects which result in the broadening of a critical slowing down (enlargement of the relaxation time of helix‐coil transition near its critical temperature). [M. Suzuki, Prog. Theor. Phys. 43, 882 (1970)] (2) It is formulated to give a clear physical picture for the relaxation modes from the final equations. (3) It is directly applied to experiments which measure physical quantities concerning a helical length and its orientation, such as dielectricdispersion, the Kerr effect,light scattering, sonic dispersion or T‐jump method. The relaxationspectra for dielectricdispersion are given.