English

Deterministic cascade coarsening in a Bistable Gene Toggle model

Statistical Mechanics 2026-07-21 v1 Pattern Formation and Solitons Biological Physics

Abstract

We investigate deterministic coarsening dynamics in a spatially extended bistable gene toggle model with diffusive coupling. Unlike classical curvature-driven coarsening, where domain walls move continuously and annihilate gradually, the present system exhibits a qualitatively different mechanism. The domain walls remain pinned for long intervals and disappear abruptly through collective cascade events. The density of domain walls decays approximately as ρ(t)tδ\rho(t)\sim t^{-\delta}, but the coarsening exhibits clear log-periodic oscillations superimposed on the power-law behavior. For all values of the promoter strength α\alpha considered, the measured exponent satisfies δ<0.5\delta<0.5, indicating a systematic deviation from the classical Allen--Cahn prediction δ=1/2\delta=1/2 for curvature-driven coarsening. We show that log-periodic oscillations are not controlled by the density of domain walls, but by the \emph{domains that disappear} in each cascade. The average size of disappearing domains grows roughly linearly with cascade index, producing a constant geometric spacing of cascade times, consistent with discrete scale invariance.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.18891,
  title  = {Deterministic cascade coarsening in a Bistable Gene Toggle model},
  author = {Priyanka D. Bhoyar and Prashant M. Gade},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.18891},
  year   = {2026}
}