  We present a numerical Monte Carlo analysis of a continuos spin Ising chain
that can describe the statistical proterties of folded proteins. We find that
depending on the value of the Metropolis temperature, the model displays the
three known nontrivial phases of polymers: At low temperatures the model is in
a collapsed phase, at medium temperatures it is in a random walk phase, and at
high temperatures it enters the self-avoiding random walk phase. By
investigating the temperature dependence of the specific energy we confirm that
the transition between the collapsed phase and the random walk phase is a phase
transition, while the random walk phase and self-avoiding random walk phase are
separated from each other by a cross-over transition. We also compare the
predictions of the model to a phenomenological elastic energy formula, proposed
by Huang and Lei to describe folded proteins.
