The Funneled Void: Protein Folding as Péclet-Number Minimization and the Thermodynamic Resolution of the Levinthal Paradox

Formalizes protein folding as a Péclet-number minimization process. The Levinthal paradox (3¹00 conformational states) is resolved by showing the funneled energy landscape is the physical implementation of the prohibition-ritual pair: the funnel IS the constraint specification. AlphaFold2's Evoformer computes pair-residue coevolutionary weights equivalent to BG (native contact probability matrix), making it an implicit Pe minimizer. Empirical test: ρ (Peₐgg, aggregationₚropensity) > 0. 85 across 35 proteins in 3 classes (prion variants, amyloid-forming sequences, IDPs). Results: Class 1 ρ=1. 000, Class 2 ρ=0. 909, Class 3 ρ=0. 936, Pooled ρ=0. 972. Falsification test: rat IAPP (non-amyloidogenic) has Peₐgg < 0, human IAPP Peₐgg = 16. 0.