Multistationarity and Bistability for Fewnomial Chemical Reaction Networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates conditions under which small chemical reaction networks exhibit multistationarity and bistability, using Gale duality to analyze steady states described by fewnomial systems.

Contribution

It introduces a Gale duality approach to determine the number and stability of steady states in small reaction networks with one non-flow reaction.

Findings

Derived explicit conditions for multistationarity.

Identified parameter regimes for bistability.

Provided a framework for analyzing small networks using algebraic geometry.

Abstract

Bistability and multistationarity are properties of reaction networks linked to switch-like responses and connected to cell memory and cell decision making. Determining whether and when a network exhibits bistability is a hard and open mathematical problem. One successful strategy consists of analyzing small networks and deducing that some of the properties are preserved upon passage to the full network. Motivated by this we study chemical reaction networks with few chemical complexes. Under mass-action kinetics the steady states of these networks are described by fewnomial systems, that is polynomial systems having few distinct monomials. Such systems of polynomials are often studied in real algebraic geometry by the use of Gale dual systems. Using this Gale duality we give precise conditions in terms of the reaction rate constants for the number and stability of the steady states of families of reaction networks with one non-flow reaction.