We review recent developments of modern simulation techniques that allow study of structural transitions and folding in peptides and small proteins. As one example for applications of these techniques, we study the helix formation in homopolymers. These investigations are then extended to...

We calculate the Yang–Lee zeros for characteristic temperatures of the helix–coil transition in a continuum model of polyalanine. The distribution of these zeros differs from predictions of the Zimm–Bragg theory and supports recent claims that polyalanine exhibits a true phase transition....