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Reverse-Robust Computation with Chemical Reaction Networks

Authors: Ravi Kini and David Doty

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 387, 32nd International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA 32) (2026)

Abstract

Chemical reaction networks, or CRNs, are known to stably compute semilinear Boolean-valued predicates and functions, provided that all reactions are irreversible. However, this property does not hold for wet-lab implementations, as all chemical reactions are reversible, even at very slow rates. We study the computational power of CRNs under the reverse-robust computation model, where reactions are permitted to occur either in forward or in reverse up to a cutoff point, after which they may only occur in forward. Our main results show that all semilinear predicates and all semilinear functions can be computed reverse-robustly, and in fact, that existing constructions continue to hold under the reverse-robust computational model. A key tool used to prove correctness under the reverse-robust computation model is invariants: linear (or linear modulo some m) combinations of the counts of the species that are preserved by all reactions.

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Ravi Kini and David Doty. Reverse-Robust Computation with Chemical Reaction Networks. In 32nd International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA 32). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 387, pp. 6:1-6:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{kini_et_al:LIPIcs.DNA.32.6,
  author =	{Kini, Ravi and Doty, David},
  title =	{{Reverse-Robust Computation with Chemical Reaction Networks}},
  booktitle =	{32nd International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA 32)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-444-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{387},
  editor =	{Scalise, Dominic and Schweller, Robert},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DNA.32.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-267769},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DNA.32.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: chemical reaction networks, reverse-robust computation, semilinear}
}

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Reverse-Robust Computation with Chemical Reaction Networks

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