Self-sustaining autocatalytic networks within open-ended reaction systems

Mike Steel

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arXiv · 1501.05731

Self-sustaining autocatalytic networks within open-ended reaction systems

Mike Steel

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Abstract

Given any finite and closed chemical reaction system, it is possible to efficiently determine whether or not it contains a `self-sustaining and collectively autocatalytic' subset of reactions, and to find such subsets when they exist. However, for systems that are potentially open-ended (for example, when no prescribed upper bound is placed on the complexity or size/length of molecules types), the theory developed for the finite case breaks down. We investigate a number of subtleties that arise in such systems that are absent in the finite setting, and present several new results.

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Mike Steel. 2015-01-23. Self-sustaining autocatalytic networks within open-ended reaction systems. https://arxiv.org/abs/1501.05731

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