Asymmetry-Induced Symmetry in Network Dynamics
It is generally assumed that individual entities are more likely to exhibit the same or similar behavior if they are equal to each other: think of lasers pulsing at the same frequency, animals using the same gait, agents reaching consensus. In a recent PRL paper we have shown that this assumption is in fact false in networks of interacting entities. Our central discovery is a network phenomenon we term “asymmetry-induced symmetry” (AIS), in which the state of the system can be symmetric only when the system itself is not symmetric. Using synchronization as a model process, we demonstrate that the state in which all nodes synchronize and exhibit identical dynamics (a state of maximum symmetry, as it remains unchanged after swapping any two nodes), such as when lasers pulse together, can only be realized when the nodes themselves are not identical. Asymmetry-induced symmetry can be seen as the converse of the well-studied phenomenon of symmetry breaking, where the state has less symmetry than the system. AIS has far-reaching implications for processes that involves converging to uniform states; in particular, it offers a mechanism for yet-to-be-explained convergent forms of pattern formation, in which an asymmetric structure develops into a symmetric one. AIS also has implications for consensus dynamics, where it gives rise to the scenario in which interacting agents only reach consensus when they are sufficiently different from each other.
MBI Workshop: Control and Observability of Network Dynamics
April 11-15, 2016 - Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI), The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Organizers: Réka Albert, John Baillieul, and Adilson E. Motter
P&A Complex Systems Seminars
Seminars are held on select Thursdays of each month at 2:00 PM in Tech F160.
Approaches to Control Large, Nonlinear Complex Networks
Nonlinearity, interconnectivity, and noise are common features of complex systems and have generally been regarded as obstacles to controlling their behavior. In a pair of recent papers we have shown how these properties can be harnessed to control a network and drive it to desired states by either manipulating the system's trajectories or the landscape through which these trajectories travel. Our new Physical Review X paper presents an action-based method to predict and control noise-induced switching between different states in a network, which can also be used to create bifurcation-induced transitions in the absence of noise. Our recent Nature Communications paper shows how to identify compensatory perturbations on networks away from equilibrium even under rather restrictive constraints on the possible interventions — see movie for step-by-step construction of the interventions in simple examples. These new approaches are highly scalable and can be used to identify control interventions in a range of large complex networks, from cells to power grids. Ready-to-use codes that can be applied to identify eligible control interventions in general systems described by coupled ODEs are available in PRX's Supplemental Material and Nature's Protocol Exchange, respectively. For a nontechnical discussion, see our Chaos review on control of nonlinear network dynamics published recently as part of the 25th anniversary issue of the journal.
Videos
Watch members of the Motter group explain complex systems research to general audiences.
Rosangela Follmann
Unveiling Mysteries of Synchronization
Joo Sang Lee
Sunja's Two Dreams
Yang Yang
Say No to Blackouts
Adilson E. Motter
in What is Entropy?
by The Good Stuff
Mechanical Networks and Negative Compressibility Materials
When tensioned, ordinary materials expand along the direction of the applied force. In our recent Nature Materials paper, we explore network concepts to design metamaterials exhibiting negative compressibility transitions, during which a material undergoes contraction when tensioned (or expansion when pressured). Continuous contraction of a material in the same direction of an applied tension is inherently unstable. The conceptually similar effect we demonstrate can be achieved, however, through destabilizations of (meta)stable equilibria of the constituents. These destabilizations give rise to a stress-induced solid-solid phase transition associated with a twisted hysteresis curve for the stress-strain relationship. We suggest that the proposed materials could be useful for the design of actuators, force amplifiers, micromechanical controls, and protective devices.
- Movie: Simulated response of the material to uniform, diagonal, pinched, and splayed stress profiles.
Recent Publications
T. Nishikawa and A.E. Motter,
Symmetric states requiring system asymmetry,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 114101 (2016).
arXiv:1608.05419 - doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.114101 - Synopsis
T. Nishikawa and A.E. Motter,
Network-complement transitions, symmetries, and cluster synchronization,
Chaos 26, 094818 (2016).
doi: 10.1063/1.4960617
D.K. Wells, W.L. Kath, and A.E. Motter,
Control of stochastic and induced switching in biophysical networks,
Phys. Rev. X 5, 031036 (2015).
arXiv:1509.03349 -
doi: 10.1103/PhysRevX.5.031036
A.E. Motter,
Networkcontrology,
Chaos 25, 097621 (2015).
arXiv:1510.08320 -
doi: 10.1063/1.4931570
J. Sun, S.P. Cornelius, J. Janssen, K.A. Gray, and A.E. Motter,
Regularity underlies erratic population abundances in marine ecosystems,
J. R. Soc. Interface 12, 20150235 (2015).
arXiv:1505.03521 -
doi:10.1098/rsif.2015.0235 -
Supplementary Material
J.-R. Angilella, R.D. Vilela, and A.E. Motter,
Inertial particle trapping in an open vortical flow,
J. Fluid Mech. 744, 183 (2014).
arXiv:1403.7563 -
doi:10.1017/jfm.2014.38
A.E. Motter, M. Gruiz, G. Károlyi, and T. Tél,
Doubly transient chaos: Generic form of chaos in autonomous dissipative systems,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 194101 (2013).
arXiv:1310.4209 -
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.194101 -
Synopsis
S.P. Cornelius, W.L. Kath, and A.E. Motter,
Realistic control of network dynamics,
Nature Communications 4, 1942 (2013).
arXiv:1307.0015v1 -
doi:10.1038/ncomms2939 -
PDF -
Supplementary Information -
Movie -
Nontechnical Overview Article
J. Sun and A.E. Motter,
Controllability transition and nonlocality in network control,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 208701 (2013).
arXiv:1305.5848 -
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.208701
A.E. Motter, S.A. Myers, M. Anghel, and T. Nishikawa,
Spontaneous synchrony in power-grid networks,
Nature Physics 9, 191 (2013).
arXiv:1302.1914 -
doi:10.1038/nphys2535 -
Supplementary Information
Y. Yang, J. Wang, and A. E. Motter,
Network observability transitions,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 258701 (2012).
arXiv:1301.5916 -
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.258701 -
Supplementary Information
Z.G. Nicolaou and A.E. Motter,
Mechanical metamaterials with negative compressibility transitions,
Nature Materials 11, 608 (2012).
arXiv:1207.2185 - doi:10.1038/nmat3331 -
Supplementary Information -
Movie
Nontechnical Overview Article
S.P. Cornelius, J.S. Lee, and A.E. Motter,
Dispensability of Escherichia coli's latent pathways,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108, 3124 (2011).
arXiv:1103.5176v1 -
doi:10.1073/pnas.1009772108 -
Supplementary Information
B. Ravoori, A.B. Cohen, J. Sun, A.E. Motter, T.E. Murphy, and R. Roy,
Robustness of optimal synchronization in real networks,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 034102 (2011).
arXiv:1106.3994v1 -
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.034102 -
Supplementary Information
S. Sahasrabudhe and A.E. Motter,
Rescuing ecosystems from extinction cascades through compensatory perturbations,
Nature Communications 2, 170 (2011).
arXiv:1103.1653v1 -
doi:10.1038/ncomms1163 -
PDF - Supplementary Information
Adilson E. Motter
Photo by Eileen Molony
Professor Motter's research is focused on the dynamical behavior and control of complex systems and networks.
Positions
(Dec 2015) The group has an opening for a postdoctoral researcher in the area of control of network dynamics as applied to complex chemical reaction networks. E-mail Prof. Motter to send your CV or to request more information.
Network Control
See the talk Advances on the Control of Nonlinear Network Dynamics by Adilson E. Motter at the 2015 SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems and check out our featured control projects page to see a summary of our recent work in this area.
Group News
April 2016: Daniel Case is awarded a Presidential Fellowship, which will support his graduate research on microfluidic networks.
March 2016: Yang (Angela) Yang receives the Topical Group on Statistical and Nonlinear Physics (GSNP) Student Speaker Award at the APS March Meeting 2016.
March 2016: Our group leads a Northwestern team receiving a $3.2 million ARPA-E Grant.
January 2016: Adilson E. Motter is selected Outstanding Referee of the APS.
December 2015: Group organizes the 3rd edition of the Network Frontier Workshop.
November 2015: Adilson E. Motter is elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
October 2015: Takashi Nishikawa and Corey Brady present "Networks All Around!" at the Jr. Science Café series of the Museum of Science and Industry of Chicago.
June 2015: Xiaowen Chen receives the Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis for her senior thesis entitled "Fractal Geometry of Undriven Dissipative Systems".
March 2015: Adilson E. Motter is awarded a 2015 Simons Fellowship in Theoretical Physics.
January 2015: Motter and Campbell's article Chaos at Fifty is selected as a chapter of The Best Writing on Mathematics 2014.
May 2014: Sean Cornelius is awarded the 2014 SIAM Student Paper Prize for the paper Realistic Control of Network Dynamics.
Selected Press
Leveraging Noise to Control Complex Networks
SIAM News (January 19, 2016)
http://...
Network Control: Letting Noise Lead the Way
Science Daily (September 17, 2015)
http://...
The Answer Is the Network. What Is the Question?
Northwestern University Office of Research Annual Report 2014 (February 19, 2015)
http://...
When not to Tackle Problems Head-on
New Scientist (January 18, 2014) - cover story
http://..Preview
http://..Full Article
Chaos Reigns in Unexpected Places
Physics World (November 20, 2013)
http://...
