reversible polymerisation, a whole host of molecular pathways of supramolecular self-assembly have been proposed. [@oosawa; @cates_all; @cohen]

It is generally believed that Oosawa was the first to suggest a model in the context of the polymerisation of actin filaments, where a monomer can be added to or removed from the ends. [@oosawa; @cohen] Oosawa’s model has one important ingredient, known as *nucleation*. This means that a stable critical nucleus of $n_c \ge 1$ monomers must be formed before polymer growth commences. Although Oosawa’s model of self-assembly is in agreement with experimental data in the context of actin polymerisation, it fails to describe many other protein aggregation processes. [@curve_fitting] Indeed, the prevalent molecular pathway for self-assembly is dictated by the complex molecular structure of the monomers involved, as well as by the type of bonding between monomers that form a polymer. This results in molecular pathways that are more complex than the simple pathway proposed by Oosawa, which is sometimes also referred to as *end evaporation and addition* [@dubbeldam; @cates_eea; @semenov_eea].

In the context of the living polymerisation or linear polymers, researchers proposed a plethora of pathways by which self-assembly can occur, e.g., polymer *scission and recombination* [@cates_sr1; @semenov_sr; @cates_sr], *secondary 