Stability and relative stability in reactive systems far from equilibrium. II. Kinetic analysis of relative stability of multiple stationary states

We analyze the relative stability of multiple stationary states in chemically reactive systems far from equilibrium from a stochastic point of view. We take fluctuations into account and invoke the concept of mean first passage time, which gives a measure for the tendency of transition from one stationary state to the other. For one variable (and effectively one-variable) systems we find analytic results that are in agreement with those of relative stability found in the previous article (Paper I) with a thermodynamic analysis. The extension of the analysis to multivariable systems is indicated. We show that in the thermodynamic limit relative stability is determined solely by the properties of the stationary states.