Life as Non-Normal Chemical Accelerator
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866911329273511936 |
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| author | Sornette, Didier Troude, Virgile |
| author_facet | Sornette, Didier Troude, Virgile |
| contents | Life is commonly described as a self-organized, far-from-equilibrium process that maintains internal order by consuming free energy and exporting entropy. This thermodynamic view underlies diverse theoretical frameworks -- from autopoiesis and relational biology to autocatalytic sets and hypercycles -- yet dissipation is typically treated as a necessary consequence of living organization rather than as a property shaped by its internal dynamics. Here, through explicit calculations of biotic chemical reactions and empirical documentation, we show that living systems universally function as non-normal chemical accelerators. Their elevated entropy production emerges from the asymmetric and hierarchical architecture of their biochemical networks. We introduce a general conceptual and mathematical framework in which biological structuration is understood as a dynamical property. Characterized by asymmetric couplings and transient amplification despite asymptotic stability, non-normal dynamics are shown to naturally generate kinetic acceleration, enhanced energy throughput, and phase-transition-like reorganizations without classical bifurcations. In this view, biological organization is not merely compatible with dissipation but actively structured to amplify free-energy flux and entropy export. We support this perspective with empirical and theoretical evidence that biochemical networks generically give rise to intrinsically non-normal operators through non-reciprocal interactions and hierarchical design. This framework yields testable predictions for dissipation rates, robustness, and evolutionary design principles, and suggests a kinetic principle of evolution in which living systems preferentially construct increasingly non-normal reaction architectures, driving sustained amplification of chemical fluxes and entropy flow. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_18438 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Life as Non-Normal Chemical Accelerator Sornette, Didier Troude, Virgile Biological Physics Other Quantitative Biology Life is commonly described as a self-organized, far-from-equilibrium process that maintains internal order by consuming free energy and exporting entropy. This thermodynamic view underlies diverse theoretical frameworks -- from autopoiesis and relational biology to autocatalytic sets and hypercycles -- yet dissipation is typically treated as a necessary consequence of living organization rather than as a property shaped by its internal dynamics. Here, through explicit calculations of biotic chemical reactions and empirical documentation, we show that living systems universally function as non-normal chemical accelerators. Their elevated entropy production emerges from the asymmetric and hierarchical architecture of their biochemical networks. We introduce a general conceptual and mathematical framework in which biological structuration is understood as a dynamical property. Characterized by asymmetric couplings and transient amplification despite asymptotic stability, non-normal dynamics are shown to naturally generate kinetic acceleration, enhanced energy throughput, and phase-transition-like reorganizations without classical bifurcations. In this view, biological organization is not merely compatible with dissipation but actively structured to amplify free-energy flux and entropy export. We support this perspective with empirical and theoretical evidence that biochemical networks generically give rise to intrinsically non-normal operators through non-reciprocal interactions and hierarchical design. This framework yields testable predictions for dissipation rates, robustness, and evolutionary design principles, and suggests a kinetic principle of evolution in which living systems preferentially construct increasingly non-normal reaction architectures, driving sustained amplification of chemical fluxes and entropy flow. |
| title | Life as Non-Normal Chemical Accelerator |
| topic | Biological Physics Other Quantitative Biology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.18438 |