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On the Independence of Fundamental Decompositions of Power-Law Kinetic Systems

The fundamental decomposition of a chemical reaction network (CRN) is induced by partitioning the reaction set into "fundamental classes". It was the basis of the Higher Deficiency Algorithm for mass action systems of Ji and Feinberg, and the Multistationarity Algorithm for power-law kinetic systems of Hernandez et al. In addition to our previous work, we provide important properties of the independence (i.e., the network's stoichiometric subspace is the direct sum of the subnetworks' stoichiometric subspaces) and the incidence-independence (i.e., the image of the network's incidence map is the direct sum of the incidence maps' images of the subnetworks) of these decompositions. Feinberg established the essential relationship between independent decompositions and the set of positive equilibria of a network, which we call the Feinberg Decomposition Theorem (FDT). Moreover, Farinas et al. recently documented its version for incidence-independence. Fundamental decomposition divides the network into subnetworks of deficiency either 0 or 1 only. Hence, available results for lower deficiency networks, such as the Deficiency Zero Theorem (DZT), can be used. These justify the study of independent fundamental decompositions. A MATLAB program which (i) computes the subnetworks of a CRN under the fundamental decomposition and (ii) is useful for determining whether the decomposition is independent and incidence-independent is also created. Finally, we provide the following solution for determining multistationarity of CRNs with the following steps: (1) the use of the program, (2) the application of available results for CRNs with deficiency 0 or 1 (e.g., DZT), and (3) the use of FDT. We illustrate the solution by showing that the generalization of a subnetwork of Schmitz's carbon cycle model by Hernandez et al., endowed with mass action kinetics, has no capacity for multistationarity.