Classification and threshold dynamics of stochastic reaction networks

Abstract

Stochastic reaction networks (SRNs) provide models of many real-world networks. Examples include networks in epidemiology, pharmacology, genetics, ecology, chemistry, and social sciences. Here, we model stochastic reaction networks by continuous time Markov chains (CTMCs) and pay special attention to one-dimensional mass-action SRNs (1-d stoichiometric subspace). We classify all states of the underlying CTMC of 1-d SRNs. In terms of (up to) four parameters, we provide sharp checkable criteria for various dynamical properties (including explosivity, recurrence, ergodicity, and the tail asymptotics of stationary or quasi-stationary distributions) of SRNs in the sense of their underlying CTMCs. As a result, we prove that all 1-d endotactic networks are non-explosive, and positive recurrent with an ergodic stationary distribution with Conley-Maxwell-Poisson (CMP)-like tail, provided the state space of the associated CTMCs consists of closed communicating classes. In particular, we prove the recently proposed positive recurrence conjecture in one dimension: Weakly reversible mass-action SRNs with 1-d stoichiometric subspaces are positive recurrent. The proofs of the main results rely on our recent work on CTMCs with polynomial transition rate functions.