A finite-size scaling study of a model of globular proteins

Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations are used to explore the metastable fluid-fluid coexistence curve of the modified Lennard-Jones model of globular proteins of ten Wolde and Frenkel Science, 277, 1975 (1997)]. Using both mixed-field finite-size scaling and histogram-reweighting methods, the joint distribution of density and energy fluctuations is analyzed at coexistence to accurately determine the critical-point parameters. The subcritical coexistence region is explored using the recently developed hyper parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulation method along with histogram reweighting to obtain the density distributions. The phase diagram for the metastable fluid-fluid coexistence curve is calculated in close proximity to the critical point, a region previously unattained by simulations.