A complex balanced kinetic system is absolutely complex balanced (ACB) if every positive equilibrium is complex balanced. Two results on absolute complex balancing were foundational for modern chemical reaction network theory (CRNT): in 1972, M. Feinberg proved that any deficiency zero complex balanced system is absolutely complex balanced. In the same year, F. Horn and R. Jackson showed that the (full) converse of the result is not true: any complex balanced mass action system, regardless of its deficiency, is absolutely complex balanced. In this paper, we revive the study of ACB systems first by providing a partial converse to Feinbergs Theorem. In the spirit of Horn and Jacksons result, we then describe several methods for constructing new classes of ACB systems with positive deficiency and present classes of power law kinetic systems for each method. Furthermore, we illustrate the usefulness of the ACB property for obtaining new results on absolute concentration robustness (ACR) in a species, a concept introduced for mass action systems by Shinar and Feinberg in 2010, for a class of power law systems. Finally, we motivate the study of ACB in poly-PL systems, i.e. sums of power law systems, and indicate initial results.
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