Thermodynamic origins of topological protection in nonequilibrium stochastic systems

Topological protection has emerged as an organizing principle for understanding and engineering robust collective behavior in electronic and material systems. Recent work suggests that topology may also play a role in organizing stochastic processes relevant to biology and self-assembly. Here, we show that topological protection in chemical networks can be understood entirely in terms of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. We illustrate these ideas using simple examples inspired by the literature.