Experiments with arbitrary networks in time-multiplexed delay systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces an innovative optoelectronic feedback loop system that enables the experimental study of large, complex networks with arbitrary topology, facilitating high-speed analysis of phenomena like synchronization and chimera states.

Contribution

The authors develop a flexible, reconfigurable experimental platform using a single feedback loop with time delays and FPGA implementation to explore complex network dynamics.

Findings

Successful creation of large networks with arbitrary topology

Observation of cluster synchronization and chimera states

High-speed, reconfigurable network dynamics

Abstract

We report a new experimental approach using an optoelectronic feedback loop to investigate the dynamics of oscillators coupled on large complex networks with arbitrary topology. Our implementation is based on a single optoelectronic feedback loop with time delays. We use the space-time interpretation of systems with time delay to create large networks of coupled maps. Others have performed similar experiments using high-pass filters to implement the coupling; this restricts the network topology to the coupling of only a few nearest neighbors. In our experiment, the time delays and coupling are implemented on a field-programmable gate array, allowing the creation of networks with arbitrary coupling topology. This system has many advantages: the network nodes are truly identical, the network is easily reconfigurable, and the network dynamics occur at high speeds. We use this system to study cluster synchronization and chimera states in both small and large networks of different topologies.