On the evolutionary Gamma-convergence of gradient systems modeling slow and fast chemical reactions

Abstract

We investigate the limit passage for a system of ordinary differential equations modeling slow and fast chemical reaction of mass-action type, where the rates of fast reactions tend to infinity. We give an elementary proof of convergence to a reduced dynamical system acting in the slow reaction directions on the manifold of fast reaction equilibria. Then we study the entropic gradient structure of these systems and prove an E-convergence result via Gamma-convergence of the primary and dual dissipation potentials, which shows that this structure carries over to the fast reaction limit. We recover the limit dynamics as a gradient flow of the entropy with respect to a pseudo-metric.