Mobility and density induced amplitude death in metapopulation networks of coupled oscillators

TL;DR

This study explores how mobility and density influence the collective dynamics of coupled oscillators in metapopulation networks, revealing phase transitions including amplitude death and synchronization.

Contribution

It demonstrates that increasing mobility and density can induce phase transitions in oscillator networks, a phenomenon robust across different network topologies.

Findings

Higher mobility and density can cause transitions from incoherence to amplitude death.

Existence of an intermediate mobility/density range leading to global oscillator death.

The observed phenomena are robust across various network topologies.

Abstract

We investigate the effects of mobility and density on the amplitude death of coupled oscillators in metapopulation networks, wherein each node represents a subpopulation with any number of mobile individuals. We perform stochastic simulations of the dynamical reaction-diffusion processes associated with the Landau-Stuart oscillators in scale-free networks. Interestingly, we find that, with increasing the mobility rate or density, the system may undergo phase transitions from incoherent state to amplitude death, and then to frequency synchronization. Especially, there exists an extent of intermediate mobility rate and density leading to global oscillator death. In addition, we show this nontrivial phenomenon is robust to different network topologies. Our findings may invoke further efforts and attentions to explore the underlying mechanism of collective behaviors in metapopulation coupled systems.