Periodic Modulation Induced Increase of Reaction Rates in Autocatalytic Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a mechanism where periodic modulation enhances reaction rates in autocatalytic systems through noise cooperation, demonstrated using the Sel'Kov model and linked to stochastic resonance effects.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to increase reaction rates in multistable autocatalytic systems via periodic modulation and noise, supported by theoretical and computational analysis.

Findings

Reaction velocities increase with periodic modulation

Existence of a minimum in mean first passage time

Reaction enhancement linked to stochastic resonance

Abstract

We propose a new mechanism to increase the reactions ratesin multistable autocatalytic systems. The mechanism is based upon the possibility for the enhancement of the response of the system due to the cooperative behavior between the noise and an external periodic modulation. In order to illustrate this feature we compute the reaction velocities for the particular case of the Sel'Kov model, showing that they increase significantly when the periodic modulation is introduced. This behavior originates from the existence of a minimum in the mean first passage time, one of the signatures of stochastic resonance.