Figure 4.

Contour plots of the free energy landscape F(E, Q) as a function of the configurational energy E and the end-to-end distance Q for a purely repulsive confining potential. Plots a–d correspond to the bulk case and cages of radius 15 Å, 20 Å, and 25 Å, respectively. The unfolded states are strongly affected when the size of the cage decreases. The native state and the intermediates are only slightly modified. The contour lines represent the free energy difference with respect to the native state and are given in Kcal/mol K.