Curvature-Induced Saturation in Catalytic Reaction Networks: A Differential Geometrical Framework for Modeling Chemical Complexity
Abstract
The evolution of chemical reaction networks is often analyzed through kinetic models and energy landscapes, but these approaches fail to capture the deeper structural constraints governing complexity growth. In chemical reaction networks, emergent constraints dictate the organization of reaction pathways, limiting combinatorial expansion and determining stability conditions. This paper introduces a novel approach to modeling chemical reaction networks by incorporating differential geometry into the classical framework of reaction kinetics. By utilizing the Riemannian metric, Christoffel symbols, and a system-specific entropy-like term, we provide a new method for understanding the evolution of complex reaction systems. The approach captures the interdependence between species, the curvature of the reaction network's configuration space, and the tendency of the system to evolve toward more probable states. The interaction topology constrains the accessible reaction trajectories and the introduced differential geometrical approach allows analysis of curvature constraints which help us to understand pathway saturation and transition dynamics. Rather than treating reaction space as an unconstrained combinatorial landscape, we frame it as a structured manifold with higher order curvature describing a geodesic for system evolution under intrinsic constraints. This geometrical perspective offers a unique insight into pathway saturation, self-interruption, and emergent behavior in reaction networks, and provides a scalable framework for modeling large biochemical or catalytic systems.