On the chemical meaning of some growth models possessing Gompertzian-type property

Abstract

Growth models are often used when modelling various processes in life sciences, ecology, demography, social sciences, etc. Dynamical growth models are usually formulated in terms of an ODE (system of ODS's) or by an explicit solution to an ODE, such as the logistic, Gompertz, and Richardson growth models. To choose a suitable growth model it is useful to know the physics‐chemical meaning of the model. In many situations this meaning is best expressed by means of a reaction network that possibly induces the dynamical growth model via mass action kinetics. Such reaction networks are well known for a number of growth models, such as the saturation‐decay and the logistic Verhulst models. However, no such reaction networks exist for the Gompertz growth model. In this work we propose some reaction networks using mass action kinetics that induce growth models that are (in certain sense) close to the Gompertz model. The discussion of these reaction networks aims to a better understanding of the chemical properties of the Gompertz model and “Gompertzian‐type” growth models. Our method can be considered as an extension of the work of previous authors who “recasted” the Gompertz differential equation into a dynamical system of two differential equations that, apart of the basic species variable, involve an additional variable that can be interpreted as a “resource.” Two new growth models based on mass action kinetics are introduced and studied in comparison with the Gompertz model. Numerical computations are presented using some specialized software tools.