More Like this

1. A Spectral Measure for Network Robustness: Assessment, Design, and Evolution

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ICKG55886.2022.00020  

   Jin, Shengmin; Ma, Rui; Li, Jiayu; Eftekharnejad, Sara; Zafarani, Reza (November 2022, 2022 IEEE International Conference on Knowledge Graph (ICKG))

   A robust system should perform well under random failures or targeted attacks, and networks have been widely used to model the underlying structure of complex systems such as communication, infrastructure, and transportation networks. Hence, network robustness becomes critical to understanding system robustness. In this paper, we propose a spectral measure for network robustness: the second spectral moment m2 of the network. Our results show that a smaller second spectral moment m2 indicates a more robust network. We demonstrate both theoretically and with extensive empirical studies that the second spectral moment can help (1) capture various traditional measures of network robustness; (2) assess the robustness of networks; (3) design networks with controlled robustness; and (4) study how complex networked systems (e.g., power systems) behave under cascading failures. 

   more » « less
2. Quantum alchemy beyond singlets: Bonding in diatomic molecules with hydrogen

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0079487  

   Eikey, Emily A.; Maldonado, Alex M.; Griego, Charles D.; von Rudorff, Guido Falk; Keith, John A. (May 2022, The Journal of Chemical Physics)

   Bonding energies play an essential role in describing the relative stability of molecules in chemical space. Therefore, methods employed to search chemical space need to capture the bonding behavior for a wide range of molecules, including radicals. In this work, we investigate the ability of quantum alchemy to capture the bonding behavior of hypothetical chemical compounds, specifically diatomic molecules involving hydrogen with various electronic structures. We evaluate equilibrium bond lengths, ionization energies, and electron affinities of these fundamental systems. We compare and contrast how well manual quantum alchemy calculations, i.e., quantum mechanics calculations in which the nuclear charge is altered, and quantum alchemy approximations using a Taylor series expansion can predict these molecular properties. Our results suggest that while manual quantum alchemy calculations outperform Taylor series approximations, truncations of Taylor series approximations after the second order provide the most accurate Taylor series predictions. Furthermore, these results suggest that trends in quantum alchemy predictions are generally dependent on the predicted property (i.e., equilibrium bond length, ionization energy, or electron affinity). Taken together, this work provides insight into how quantum alchemy predictions using a Taylor series expansion may be applied to future studies of non-singlet systems as well as the challenges that remain open for predicting the bonding behavior of such systems. 

   more » « less
3. Prevalence of multistability and nonstationarity in driven chemical networks

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0142589  

   Nicolaou, Zachary G.; Nicholson, Schuyler B.; Motter, Adilson E.; Green, Jason R. (June 2023, The Journal of Chemical Physics)

   External flows of energy, entropy, and matter can cause sudden transitions in the stability of biological and industrial systems, fundamentally altering their dynamical function. How might we control and design these transitions in chemical reaction networks? Here, we analyze transitions giving rise to complex behavior in random reaction networks subject to external driving forces. In the absence of driving, we characterize the uniqueness of the steady state and identify the percolation of a giant connected component in these networks as the number of reactions increases. When subject to chemical driving (influx and outflux of chemical species), the steady state can undergo bifurcations, leading to multistability or oscillatory dynamics. By quantifying the prevalence of these bifurcations, we show how chemical driving and network sparsity tend to promote the emergence of these complex dynamics and increased rates of entropy production. We show that catalysis also plays an important role in the emergence of complexity, strongly correlating with the prevalence of bifurcations. Our results suggest that coupling a minimal number of chemical signatures with external driving can lead to features present in biochemical processes and abiogenesis. 

   more » « less
4. Synaptic delays shape dynamics and function in multimodal neural motifs

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0233640  

   Qie, Xinxin; Zang, Jie; Liu, Shenquan; Shilnikov, Andrey L (April 2025, Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science)

   Kurtz, Jurgen (Ed.)

   In neuroscience, delayed synaptic activity plays a pivotal and pervasive role in influencing synchronization, oscillation, and information-processing properties of neural networks. In small rhythm-generating networks, such as central pattern generators (CPGs), time-delays may regulate and determine the stability and variability of rhythmic activity, enabling organisms to adapt to environmental changes, and coordinate diverse locomotion patterns in both function and dysfunction. Here, we examine the dynamics of a three-cell CPG model in which time-delays are introduced into reciprocally inhibitory synapses between constituent neurons. We employ computational analysis to investigate the multiplicity and robustness of various rhythms observed in such multi-modal neural networks. Our approach involves deriving exhaustive two-dimensional Poincaré return maps for phase-lags between constituent neurons, where stable fixed points and invariant curves correspond to various phase-locked and phase-slipping/jitter rhythms. These rhythms emerge and disappear through various local (saddle-node, torus) and non-local (homoclinic) bifurcations, highlighting the multi-functionality (modality) observed in such small neural networks with fast inhibitory synapses. 

   more » « less
5. A universal description of stochastic oscillators

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2303222120  

   Pérez-Cervera, Alberto; Gutkin, Boris; Thomas, Peter J.; Lindner, Benjamin (July 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Many systems in physics, chemistry, and biology exhibit oscillations with a pronounced random component. Such stochastic oscillations can emerge via different mechanisms, for example, linear dynamics of a stable focus with fluctuations, limit-cycle systems perturbed by noise, or excitable systems in which random inputs lead to a train of pulses. Despite their diverse origins, the phenomenology of random oscillations can be strikingly similar. Here, we introduce a nonlinear transformation of stochastic oscillators to a complex-valued function Q 1 * ( x ) that greatly simplifies and unifies the mathematical description of the oscillator’s spontaneous activity, its response to an external time-dependent perturbation, and the correlation statistics of different oscillators that are weakly coupled. The function Q 1 * ( x ) is the eigenfunction of the Kolmogorov backward operator with the least negative (but nonvanishing) eigenvalue λ 1 = μ 1 + iω 1 . The resulting power spectrum of the complex-valued function is exactly given by a Lorentz spectrum with peak frequency ω 1 and half-width μ 1 ; its susceptibility with respect to a weak external forcing is given by a simple one-pole filter, centered around ω 1 ; and the cross-spectrum between two coupled oscillators can be easily expressed by a combination of the spontaneous power spectra of the uncoupled systems and their susceptibilities. Our approach makes qualitatively different stochastic oscillators comparable, provides simple characteristics for the coherence of the random oscillation, and gives a framework for the description of weakly coupled oscillators. 

   more » « less