Emergent nonreciprocity in open thermodynamically-consistent chemical reaction networks

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how open, thermodynamically consistent chemical reaction networks can exhibit oscillatory instabilities due to nonreciprocity caused by chemostats, leading to oscillations that minimize free energy.

Contribution

It reveals that network topology and chemostats induce nonreciprocity resulting in oscillations near steady states, a novel insight into nonequilibrium chemical systems.

Findings

Nonreciprocity arises from chemostat-induced breaking of Onsager reciprocity.

Oscillatory dynamics are confirmed in reaction-diffusion systems.

Oscillations minimize a free energy despite nonreciprocity.

Abstract

Nonreciprocity, a hallmark of nonequilibrium systems, can generate dynamics not possible near thermodynamic equilibrium, including oscillatory and rotating patterns. The onset of temporal oscillations is often evident in linearized dynamics, where nonreciprocity appears as complex eigenvalues of an asymmetric Jacobian. Here, we show that the topology of open, thermodynamically-consistent chemical reaction networks can result in oscillatory instabilities near nonequilibrium steady states. These instabilities arise from chemostat-induced breaking of Onsager reciprocity, while the local equilibrium hypothesis preserves the variational structure of the dissipative part of the dynamics. Numerical results confirm that such nonreciprocity in reaction-diffusion systems produces oscillatory dynamics that nevertheless minimize a free energy.