A new class of highly efficient exact stochastic simulation algorithms for chemical reaction networks

We introduce an alternative formulation of the exact stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA) for sampling trajectories of the chemical master equation for a well-stirred system of coupled chemical reactions. Our formulation is based on factored-out, partial reaction propensities. This novel exact SSA, called the partial-propensity direct method (PDM), is highly efficient and has a computational cost that scales at most linearly with the number of chemical species, irrespective of the degree of coupling of the reaction network. In addition, we propose a sorting variant, SPDM, which is especially efficient for multiscale reaction networks.