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LIT-1886: Thermodynamic Space of Chemical Reaction Networks

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StatusActive — read 2026-10-31 (NOTE-1463; appendices skimmed); worth reading for the bounds a fixed driving places on every stationary state of any reaction network (THEORY-1261). The exchange's A13 also cited it for organizations that end when their driving is exhausted; the paper's chemostats are fixed, and that point is LIT-1887's.
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Tagsthermodynamics
Cited as “paper” byNOTE-1463 — Liang, De Los Rios & Busiello — Thermodynamic space of reaction networks
Cited as “source” byTHEORY-1261 — At stationarity a driven reaction network is confined to a thermodynamic space: each reaction's affinity lies between zero and the largest cycle affinity per use of that reaction among the elementary flux modes containing it, and each product of concentrations lies between the effective equilibrium constants of the extremal pathways; with no driving the space collapses to the equilibrium point, so multistability, symmetry breaking and amplification above equilibrium need driving and are bounded by it

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Liang, S., De Los Rios, P., & Busiello, D. M. (2026). Thermodynamic space of chemical reaction networks. Physical Review X, 16, 041026.

Read in NOTE-1463.

Why this is here

A13 used it for the intersection of the dynamically viable region with what thermodynamic driving permits, and the paper supplies exactly that (THEORY-1261): no stationary state, for any kinetics, lies outside a region set by topology and driving, and the region is a point at equilibrium. A13 also used it for “an organization endogenously maintained relative to its own organization can still have a finite lifetime because its driving is exhausted”. The paper does not show that: its chemostats are fixed and it treats only stationary states. The finite-lifetime point is Remlein, Esposito and Avanzini’s (LIT-1887). For CASE-189 rewritten as chemistry, every fixed point lies between the floor set by the waste and the ceiling set by the fuel (NOTE-1463).

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