Oscillations in three‐reaction quadratic mass‐action systems

It is known that rank‐two bimolecular mass‐action systems do not admit limit cycles. With a view to understanding which small mass‐action systems admit oscillation, in this paper we study rank‐two networks with bimolecular source complexes but allow target complexes with higher molecularities. As our goal is to find oscillatory networks of minimal size, we focus on networks with three reactions, the minimum number that is required for oscillation. However, some of our intermediate results are valid in greater generality. One key finding is that an isolated periodic orbit cannot occur in a three‐reaction, trimolecular, mass‐action system with bimolecular sources. In fact, we characterize all networks in this class that admit a periodic orbit; in every case, all nearby orbits are periodic too. Apart from the well‐known Lotka and Ivanova reactions, we identify another network in this class that admits a center. This new network exhibits a vertical Andronov–Hopf bifurcation. Furthermore, we characterize all two‐species, three‐reaction, bimolecular‐sourced networks that admit an Andronov–Hopf bifurcation with mass‐action kinetics. These include two families of networks that admit a supercritical Andronov–Hopf bifurcation and hence a stable limit cycle. These networks necessarily have a target complex with a molecularity of at least four, and it turns out that there are exactly four such networks that are tetramolecular.