On the connectedness of multistationarity regions of small reaction networks

A multistationarity region is the part of a reaction network's parameter space that gives rise to multiple steady states. Mathematically, this region consists of the positive parameters for which a parametrized family of polynomial equations admits two or more positive roots. Much recent work has focused on analyzing multistationarity regions of biologically significant reaction networks and determining whether such regions are connected; indeed, a better understanding of the topology and geometry of such regions may help elucidate how robust multistationarity is to perturbations. Here we focus on the multistationarity regions of small networks, those with few species and few reactions. For two families of such networks – those with one species and up to three reactions, and those with two species and up to two reactions – we prove that the resulting multistationarity regions are connected. We also give an example of a network with one species and six reactions for which the multistationarity region is disconnected. Our proofs rely on the formula for the discriminant of a trinomial, a classification of small multistationary networks, and a recent result of Feliu and Telek that partially generalizes Descartes' rule of signs.