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Compositional Proofreading through Critical Self-Tuning

Omer Karin

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 188401 – Published 28 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gz26-8ryj

Abstract

High-dimensional multicomponent systems, including immune and epigenetic repertoires, must selectively retain rare, beneficial components while purging a large influx of suboptimal variants. I demonstrate that critical tuning of component control parameters through competition naturally implements proofreading in these systems. Competition for shared inputs pins the system to the marginal stability threshold of the most persistent species. This grants that species an extended lifetime and concentrates a macroscopic fraction of the population in that species, while forcing less-stable variants into rapid drift-driven turnover. When the aggregate drive exceeds a critical influx, pinning fails and all components enter a rapid-turnover regime. Applying this framework to biological memory, I identify the hallmarks of this effect in plasma cell accumulation dynamics and propose that altered pinning dynamics may represent failure points across biological domains, including cancer, immunodeficiencies, and the aberrant activation of harmful genomic elements during aging.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 188401– Published 28 October, 2026
  • Received 14 April 2026
  • Accepted 23 September 2026
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