Limit cycles in mass-conserving deficiency-one mass-action systems

Balázs Boros, Josef Hofbauer

Published 2022-02-21, updated 2022-02-23Version 2

We present some simple mass-action systems with limit cycles that fall under the scope of the Deficiency-One Theorem. All the constructed examples are mass-conserving and their stoichiometric subspace is two-dimensional. Using the continuation software MATCONT, we depict the limit cycles in all stoichiometric classes at once. The networks are trimolecular and tetramolecular, and some exhibit two or even three limit cycles. Finally, we show that the associated mass-action system of a bimolecular reaction network with two-dimensional stoichiometric subspace does not admit a limit cycle.