Von Neumann's growth model: statistical mechanics and biological applications
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
2015-06-05 v1 Biological Physics
Molecular Networks
Abstract
We review recent work on the statistical mechanics of Von Neumann's growth model and discuss its application to cellular metabolic networks. In this context, we present a detailed analysis of the physiological scenario underlying optimality a la Von Neumann in the metabolism of the bacterium Escherichia coli, showing that optimal solutions are characterized by a considerable microscopic flexibility accompanied by a robust emergent picture for the key physiological functions. This suggests that the ideas behind optimal economic growth in Von Neumann's model can be helpful in uncovering functional organization principles of cell energetics.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1205.2769,
title = {Von Neumann's growth model: statistical mechanics and biological applications},
author = {Andrea De Martino and Enzo Marinari and Andrea Romualdi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1205.2769},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
20 pages, to appear in EPJB (Proc. of Int'l Conference on Statistical Physics, Larnaca, July 2011)