Macroscopic Fluctuation-Response Theory and Its Use for Gene Regulatory Networks
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 067102 – Published 10 February, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2b12-3vrx
Abstract
Gaussian macroscopic fluctuation theory underpins the understanding of noise in a broad class of nonequilibrium systems. We derive exact fluctuation-response relations linking the power spectral density of stationary fluctuations to the linear response of stable nonequilibrium steady states. Both of these can be determined experimentally and used to reconstruct the kernel of the linearized dynamics and the diffusion matrix, and thus any features of the Gaussian theory. We apply our theory to gene regulatory networks with negative feedback, and derive an explicit internal-external noise decomposition of the power spectral density for any networks, including cross-correlations.
