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Chemical heredity without genetic templates

Primarily AI-generated textHuman understanding: some partsmath.PR — Probabilitymath.DS — Dynamical Systems

Contributed by Michael Mislan ↗

Version 1 / Oct 21, 2026 / CC BY 4.0

Abstract

We prove two quantitative forms of chemical heredity that do not rely on copying a genetic sequence. In the first model, a population of four compartments carries three prescribed catalyst types that compete for a shared local fuel. Two types are present from the start; a third is supplied for a fixed seeding period, after which all catalyst input stops. We prove that, with failure probability at most 0.004517975690072193, a single finite-stock process acquires the third type and keeps all three present in both daughters of every division, delivers three million catalytic conversion credits on a fixed per-site schedule, and rebuilds the population's copy reserves eleven times, interleaved with ten divisions. The proof controls acquisition, catalytic service, recovery and resource consumption on one stochastic history; it does not assume that a compartment stays replenished between recovery and division. In the second model, an imperfect parent copies its majority conformation into an independent racemic blank, after which both outputs undergo cooperative restoration while spontaneous errors continue. At 4,000 molecules per compartment, 100 successive copying cycles succeed with probability at least 0.999, uniformly over a box of rate parameters. Complete conventional proofs and explicit finite certificates are supplied. The central finite-stock theorem, though not the restoration result, also has a machine-checked Lean formalization. A converse for random division explains why unlinked information units and linked carriers face different loss mechanisms. These results establish acquisition and retained function under prescribed chemistry and operations; chemically generated successive innovations and open-ended evolution require additional mechanisms.

Provenance statement

The text is primarily AI-generated. AI systems assisted the mathematical development, computations and Lean formalization under human direction; human understanding covers some parts of the work.

Formalizations

References

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  9. Mislan, M. (2026). Supplement S1, record S1.1: Complete catalytic-population proof source, finite certificates and operating-comparison support. Accompanying Chemical heredity without genetic templates . Source editions and exact identities are specified in the supplement.
  10. Mislan, M. (2026). Supplement S1, record S1.2: Complete majority-copying and restoration proof source. Accompanying Chemical heredity without genetic templates . The conventional proof is integrated in Appendix D; source provenance is retained in the supplement.
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  1. Mislan, M. (2026). Chemical heredity without genetic templates: Formalization source. GitHub repository; immutable reproducibility snapshot identified in Supplement S1. https://github.com/mmislan/palomar-template-free-heredity.link

Version history

  1. v1Submitted by Michael MislanInitial depositCurrentOct 21, 2026