Energetics of bounded internal phase space in nonlinear biological processes

Determine how imposing finite bounds on internal state variables (a bounded internal phase space) influences the energetic costs, such as steady-state energy dissipation and entropy production, of nonlinear biological processes including, but not limited to, sensory adaptation networks like bacterial chemotaxis.

Background

The paper studies sensory adaptation using an idealized two-variable Langevin model for bacterial chemotaxis, emphasizing how finite ranges of internal variables (activity a in [0,1] and methylation level m in [0,m0]) affect both adaptation accuracy and energetic cost.

While prior work established cost–accuracy relations under varying chemical driving, the broader question of how finite state-space bounds generally alter energetics across nonlinear biological systems is highlighted as unresolved, motivating the present analysis.