Fundamental scaling constraints for equilibrium molecular computing.

Abstract

Molecular computing promises massive parallelization to explore solution spaces, but so far practical implementations remain limited due to off-target binding and exponential proliferation of competing structures. Here, we investigate the theoretical limits of equilibrium self-assembly systems for solving computing problems, focusing on the directed Hamiltonian path problem (HPP) as a benchmark for NP-complete problems. The HPP is encoded via particles with directional lock-key patches, where self-assembled chains form candidate solution paths. We determine constraints on the required energy gap between on-target and off-target binding for an acyclic HPP to be encoded and solved. We simultaneously examine whether components with the required energy gap can be designed. Combining these results yields a phase diagram identifying regions where HPP problems are both solvable and designable. These results establish fundamental upper bounds on equilibrium molecular computation and highlight the necessity of nonequilibrium approaches for scalable molecular computing architectures.