Finite fluctuations and multiple steady states far from equilibrium

✍ Scribed by Jack S. Turner

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 590 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1522-9602
• DOI: 10.1016/s0092-8240(74)80022-4

✦ Synopsis

The role of finite fluctuations in transitions between nonequilibritun steady states in nonlinear systems is investigated. Attention is focused on a model biochemical system for which the usual deterministic chemical kinetics predicts a far-from-equilibrium region of multiple steady states. A stochastic approach to chemical kinetics is adopted to study explicitly the effect of fluctuations around the coexisting stable states on a predicted hysteresis in the transition between those states. A numerical solution of the stochastic master equation for the system yields results which differ qualitatively from predictions of the purely macroscopic theory. Possible implications of these results are considered, and several important aspects of the computational scheme are discussed in some detail.