The inheritance of local bifurcations in mass action networks

Abstract

We consider local bifurcations of equilibria in dynamical systems arising from chemical reaction networks with mass action kinetics. In particular, given any mass action network admitting a local bifurcation of equilibria, assuming only a general transversality condition, we list some enlargements of the network which preserve its capacity for the bifurcation. These results allow us to identify bifurcations in reaction networks from examination of their subnetworks, extending and complementing previous results on the inheritance of nontrivial dynamical behaviours amongst mass action networks. A number of examples are presented to illustrate applicability of the results.