On the possibility of sustained oscillations, multiple steady states, and asymmetric steady states in multicell reaction systems

Abstract

A multicell reaction system is defined as a composite of cells within which chemical reactions occur. The cells exchange reaction participants with each other and with the environment. Such systems may exhibit sustained oscillations or multiple steady states. They may also exhibit asymmetric steady states even though the cells are identical and the system itself is symmetric with respect to the permutation of the cells. Results are presented which relate the stability of a multicell reaction system and the steady state distribution of the reaction participants to easily determined properties of the underlying reaction mechanism.