Assessing the quality of stochastic oscillations

Abstract

We analyze the relationship between the macroscopic and microscopic descriptions of two-state systems, in particular the regime in which the microscopic one shows sustained ‘stochastic oscillations’ while the macroscopic tends to a fixed point. We propose a quantification of the oscillatory appearance of the fluctuating populations, and show that good stochastic oscillations are present if a parameter of the macroscopic model is small, and that no microscopic model will show oscillations if that parameter is large. The transition between these two regimes is smooth. In other words, given a macroscopic deterministic model, one can know whether any microscopic stochastic model that has it as a limit, will display good sustained stochastic oscillations.