Uniqueness of weakly reversible and deficiency zero realizations of dynamical systems

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Publication:2066477



Abstract: A reaction network together with a choice of rate constants uniquely gives rise to a system of differential equations, according to the law of mass-action kinetics. On the other hand, different networks can generate the same dynamical system under mass-action kinetics. Therefore, the problem of identifying "the" underlying network of a dynamical system is not well-posed, in general. Here we show that the problem of identifying an underlying weakly reversible deficiency zero network is well-posed, in the sense that the solution is unique whenever it exists. This can be very useful in applications because from the perspective of both dynamics and network structure, a weakly reversibly deficiency zero (extitWRextit0) realization is the simplest possible one. Moreover, while mass-action systems can exhibit practically any dynamical behavior, including multistability, oscillations, and chaos, WR0 systems are remarkably stable for any choice of rate constants: they have a unique positive steady state within each invariant polyhedron, and cannot give rise to oscillations or chaotic dynamics. We also prove that both of our hypotheses (i.e., weak reversibility and deficiency zero) are necessary for uniqueness.


The authors address the relationship between chemical reaction networks obeying mass-action kinetics and the topological dynamics of corresponding systems of differential equations. A reaction network together with rate constants gives rise to a specific differential equation. The question is in how far a differential equation determines a relevant reaction network. In general, the differential equation does not select a particular network. The main result tells us that this is nevertheless the case for the simplest and most important class of networks, consisting of those that are weakly reversible and deficiency zero (Theorem 3.12). If different networks show the same dynamics then at most one belongs to this special class. The paper presents a thorough introduction to the pertinent theory together with a description of its development, equipped with numerous references to the literature.





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