A probabilistic method for calculating the energy of hydrophobic interactions

A theoretical approach is developed for estimating the hydrophobic interaction energy on the molecular level. The underlying idea of the model is the fundamental relationship between the probability of the appearance of a solvent-excluded volume in fluid water as a result of density fluctuations, on one hand, and the free energy of primitive hydrophobic solutes, on the other. This probability is estimated basing on an information theory model in combination with experimental data on the distribution density and radial distribution function. The free energy of hydrophobic interactions is determined for a complex that consists of several hard spheres. The critical number of particles in the complex is estimated.