Delay stability of reaction systems (Q2197755)

Mass action systems in chemistry are modeled by the theory of reaction networks, initiated and elaborated by Horn, Jackson and Feinberg, and presented in \textit{M. Feinberg}'s recent book [Foundations of chemical reaction network theory. Cham: Springer (2019; Zbl 1420.92001)]. It turned out that stability questions referring to equilibria can be studied largely by methods of linear algebra and graph theory. As chemical reactions mostly are not instantaneous but need time to develop, more realistic models take delays into account. The present work is devoted to reaction systems modeled by delay differential equation systems with discrete delays, in particular with respect to strong forms of stability of equilibria. As in ordinary differential equations, linearization at an equilibrium point offers a lot of information on stability. The main theorem gives a sufficient condition via a modified Jacobian that the solutions of the characteristic equation all have negative real parts. As a consequence, for a non-autocatalytic network, simple conditions on the diagonal entries and subdeterminants of the modified Jacobian guarantee delay stability, i.e., asymptotic stability of all positive equilibria, independently of the rate constants and the delay times. Application of the theory is illustrated in quite a few examples.