Graduate student seminar | Linear Conjugacy of Chemical Reaction Networks

Speaker

Matt Johnston, PhD Candidate
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo

Abstract

Under suitable assumptions the dynamics of chemical reaction networks is governed by a set of autonomous, polynomial ordinary differential equations where the quantities of concern are the specie concentrations. In general these systems are highly nonlinear and difficult to analyze; however, easily verifiable conditions are known under which many strong dynamical properties hold.

In this talk, I will focus on the relationship between the topological structure of a chemical reaction network and the dynamics of the network. In particular, I will introduce conditions on the reaction graph under which a reaction graph with "bad" structure can be transformed into one with "good" structure while preserving qualitative aspects of the dynamics. I will also give an algorithm capable of finding conjugate networks within a specific class of networks with known dynamics.

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