Noise-Induced Polarization Switch in Single and Multiplex Complex Networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates how unbiased noise can induce abrupt, irreversible polarization switches in complex networks, with the effects modulated by network structure and multiplex coupling, revealing new insights into network resilience and dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a simple three-state model demonstrating noise-induced polarization switches and explores how multiplex coupling influences these transitions in complex networks.

Findings

Noise causes collapse of bistability in fully connected networks.

In complex networks, noise can abruptly switch polarization irreversibly.

Multiplex coupling can neutralize or enhance noise-induced polarization transitions.

Abstract

The combination of bistability and noise is ubiquitous in complex systems, from biological to social interactions, and has important implications for their functioning and resilience. We analyze a simple three-state model for bistability in networks under varying unbiased noise. In a fully connected network increasing noise yields a collapse of bistability to an unpolarised state. In contrast, in complex networks noise can abruptly switch the polarization state in an irreversible way. When two networks are combined through increasing multiplex coupling, one is dominant and progressively imposes its state on the other, offsetting or promoting the ability of noise to switch polarization. Our results show that dynamical correlations and asymmetry in dynamical processes in networks are sufficient for allowing unbiased noise to produce abrupt irreversible transitions between extremes, which can be neutralized or enhanced by multiplex coupling.