Single molecule kinetics. I. Theoretical analysis of indicators

Area of Science:

• Chemical Physics
• Biophysics
• Physical Chemistry

Background:

• Single molecule experiments offer insights into chemical and biological systems.
• Existing indicators like intensity and event correlations capture system dynamics but have limitations.
• Extracting comprehensive information from these indicators is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To theoretically analyze the information content of various data analysis methods for single molecule experiments.
• To demonstrate the relationships between different indicators used in single molecule studies.
• To address the challenges in extracting kinetic information from complex dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical analysis of information content in single molecule data analysis methods.
• Examination of correlations and characteristic functions for dynamic systems.
• Discussion of Poisson kinetics and degenerate states in system analysis.

Main Results:

• Common indicators for Poisson kinetics systems generally contain similar information about relaxation times.
• The information regarding system dynamics is often convoluted across different indicators.
• Complete information extraction is theoretically possible under specific conditions but numerically challenging.

Conclusions:

• While various indicators capture aspects of single molecule dynamics, their information is system-specific and convoluted.
• Understanding the relationships between indicators is crucial for effective data analysis.
• Practical limitations necessitate further numerical studies for robust information extraction.