Collective Behavior and Memory States in Flow Networks with Tunable Bistability

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how an electronic network of tunable bistable resistors can generate complex memory states and avalanching behavior, providing insights into multistability in flow networks relevant to biological systems.

Contribution

It introduces a tunable electronic model system that reproduces multistability and complex memory states observed in flow networks, advancing understanding of nonlinear flow behaviors.

Findings

The system can generate complex voltage-based memory states.

Tunable nonlinearity controls avalanching behavior.

Explicit interactions can be encoded through circuit design.

Abstract

Multistability-induced hysteresis has been widely studied in mechanical systems, but such behavior has proven more difficult to reproduce experimentally in flow networks. Natural flow networks like animal and plant vasculature can exhibit complex nonlinear behavior to facilitate fluid transport, so multistable flows may inform their functionality. To probe such phenomena in an analogous model system, we utilize an electronic network of hysteretic bistable resistors designed to have tunable negative differential resistivity. We demonstrate our system's capability to generate complex global memory states in the form of voltage patterns, which is mediated by the tunable nonlinearity of each element's current-voltage characteristic. We investigate avalanching behavior arising from effective interactions, and demonstrate how to encode explicit interactions of arbitrary form by taking advantage of the tunable circuitry design.