An important invariant of a chemical reaction network is its maximum number
of positive steady states. This number, however, is in general difficult to
compute. Nonetheless, there is an upper bound on this number — namely, a
network’s mixed volume — that is easy to compute. Moreover, recent work
has shown that, for certain biological signaling networks, the mixed volume
does not greatly exceed the maximum number of positive steady states.
Continuing this line of research, we further investigate this overcount and also
compute the mixed volumes of small networks, those with only a few species or
reactions.
Keywords
chemical reaction network, steady state, Newton polytope,
mixed volume