Open Markov processes: A compositional perspective on non-equilibrium steady states in biology

Understand

In recent work, Baez, Fong and the author introduced a framework for describing Markov processes equipped with a detailed balanced equilibrium as open systems of a certain type.

• These `open Markov processes' serve as the building blocks for more complicated processes.
• In this paper, we describe the potential application of this framework in the modeling of biological systems as open systems maintained away from equilibrium.
• We show that non-equilibrium steady states emerge in open systems of this type, even when the rates of the underlying process are such that a detailed balanced equilibrium is permitted.