The detailed balance property and chemical systems out of equilibrium

TL;DR

This paper explores how certain biochemical and chemical systems operating out of equilibrium can be modeled by extending systems to satisfy detailed balance, even when original systems do not.

Contribution

It demonstrates that out-of-equilibrium chemical networks can be transformed into systems satisfying detailed balance by adding substances, broadening the understanding of non-equilibrium systems.

Findings

Out-of-equilibrium networks can be modeled with extended systems.

Any bidirectional chemical reaction system can be modified to satisfy detailed balance.

The approach provides a framework for analyzing non-equilibrium biochemical networks.

Abstract

The detailed balance property is a fundamental property that must be satisfied in all the macroscopic systems with a well defined temperature at each point. On the other hand, many biochemical networks work in non-equilibrium conditions and they can be effectively modelled using sets of equations in which the detailed balance condition fails. In this paper we study a class of "out of equilibrium" chemical networks that can be obtained freezing the concentration of some substances in chemical networks for which the detailed balance property holds. In particular, we prove that any chemical system with bidirectional chemical reactions can be extended to a system having additional substances and for which the detailed balance property holds.