Resonance induced by repulsive interactions in a model of globally-coupled bistable systems

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a resonance phenomenon in globally coupled bistable systems, where the response to external signals is optimized by tuning the proportion of repulsive links, coupling strength, and system size.

Contribution

It reveals a novel resonance effect induced by repulsive interactions in a generic bistable system, linking it to multistability and spectral properties of the network.

Findings

Resonance peaks depend on the proportion of repulsive links.

Resonance also occurs with variations in coupling strength and system size.

Spectral analysis predicts the resonance locations.

Abstract

We show the existence of a competition-induced resonance effect for a generic globally coupled bistable system. In particular, we demonstrate that the response of the macroscopic variable to an external signal is optimal for a particular proportion of repulsive links. Furthermore, we show that a resonance also occurs for other system parameters, like the coupling strength and the number of elements. We relate this resonance to the appearance of a multistable region, and we predict the location of the resonance peaks, by a simple spectral analysis of the Laplacian matrix.