Controlling systemic corruption through group size and salary dispersion of public servants.

We investigate an agent-based model for the emergence of corruption in public contracts. There are two types of agents: business people and public servants. Both business people and public servants can adopt two strategies: corrupt or honest behavior. Interactions between business people and public servants take place through defined payoff rules. Either type of agent can switch between corrupt or honest strategies by comparing their payoffs after interacting. We measure the level of corruption in the system by the fractions of corrupt and honest agents for asymptotic times. We study the effects of the group size of the interacting agents, the dispersion with respect to the average salary of the public servants, and a parameter representing the institutional control of corruption. We characterize the fractions of honest and corrupt agents as functions of these variables. We construct phase diagrams for the level of corruption in the system in terms of these variables, where three collective states can be distinguished: i) a phase where corruption dominates; ii) a phase where corruption remains in less than 50% of the agents; and iii) a phase where corruption disappears. Our results indicate that a combination of large group sizes of interacting servants and business people and small dispersion of the salaries of public servants, contributes to the decrease of systemic corruption in public contracts.

Against mass media trends: Minority growth in cultural globalization.

We investigate the collective behavior of a globalized society under the influence of endogenous mass media trends. The mass media trend is a global field corresponding to the statistical mode of the states of the agents in the system. The interaction dynamics is based on Axelrod's rules for the dissemination of culture. We find situations where the largest minority group, possessing a cultural state different from that of the predominant trend transmitted by the mass media, can grow to almost half of the size of the population. We show that this phenomenon occurs when a critical number of long-range connections are present in the underlying network of interactions. We have numerically characterized four phases on the space of parameters of the system: an ordered phase; a semi-ordered phase where almost half of the population consists of the largest minority in a state different from that of the mass media; a disordered phase; and a chimera-like phase where one large domain coexists with many very small domains.

Asymmetric cluster and chimera dynamics in globally coupled systems.

We investigate the emergence of chimera and cluster states possessing asymmetric dynamics in globally coupled systems, where the trajectories of oscillators belonging to different subpopulations exhibit different dynamical properties. In an asymmetric chimera state, the trajectory of an element in the synchronized subset is stationary or periodic, while that of an oscillator in the desynchronized subset is chaotic. In an asymmetric cluster state, the periods of the trajectories of elements belonging to different clusters are different. We consider a network of globally coupled chaotic maps as a simple model for the occurrence of such asymmetric states in spatiotemporal systems. We employ the analogy between a single map subject to a constant drive and the effective local dynamics in the globally coupled map system to elucidate the mechanisms for the emergence of asymmetric chimera and cluster states in the latter system. By obtaining the dynamical responses of the driven map, we establish a condition for the equivalence of the dynamics of the driven map and that of the system of globally coupled maps. This condition is applied to predict parameter values and subset partitions for the formation of asymmetric cluster and chimera states in the globally coupled system.

Chimeras and clusters in networks of hyperbolic chaotic oscillators.

We show that chimera states, where differentiated subsets of synchronized and desynchronized dynamical elements coexist, can emerge in networks of hyperbolic chaotic oscillators subject to global interactions. As local dynamics we employ Lozi maps, which possess hyperbolic chaotic attractors. We consider a globally coupled system of these maps and use two statistical quantities to describe its collective behavior: the average fraction of elements belonging to clusters and the average standard deviation of state variables. Chimera states, clusters, complete synchronization, and incoherence are thus characterized on the space of parameters of the system. We find that chimera states are related to the formation of clusters in the system. In addition, we show that chimera states arise for a sufficiently long range of interactions in nonlocally coupled networks of these maps. Our results reveal that, under some circumstances, hyperbolicity does not impede the formation of chimera states in networks of coupled chaotic systems, as it had been previously hypothesized.

Global interactions, information flow, and chaos synchronization.

We investigate the relationship between the emergence of chaos synchronization and the information flow in dynamical systems possessing homogeneous or heterogeneous global interactions whose origin can be external (driven systems) or internal (autonomous systems). By employing general models of coupled chaotic maps for such systems, we show that the presence of a homogeneous global field, either external or internal, for all times is not indispensable for achieving complete or generalized synchronization in a system of chaotic elements. Complete synchronization can also appear with heterogeneous global fields; it does not requires the simultaneous sharing of the field by all the elements in a system. We use the normalized mutual information and the information transfer between global and local variables to characterize complete and generalized synchronization. We show that these information measures can characterize both types of synchronized states and also allow us to discern the origin of a global interaction field. A synchronization state emerges when a sufficient amount of information provided by a field is shared by all the elements in the system, on the average over long times. Thus, the maximum value of the top-down information transfer can be used as a predictor of synchronization in a system, as a parameter is varied.

Complejidad estadística y comportamiento colectivo no-trivial en señales electroencefalográficas / No disponible

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Generalized synchronization of chaos in autonomous systems.

We extend the concept of generalized synchronization of chaos, a phenomenon that occurs in driven dynamical systems, to the context of autonomous spatiotemporal systems. It means a situation where the chaotic state variables in an autonomous system can be synchronized to each other, but not to a coupling function defined from them. The form of the coupling function is not crucial; it may not depend on all the state variables. Nor does it need to be active for all times for achieving generalized synchronization. The procedure is based on an analogy between a response map subject to an external drive acting with a probability p and an autonomous system of coupled maps where a global interaction between the maps takes place with this same probability. It is shown that, under some circumstances, the conditions for stability of generalized synchronized states are equivalent in both types of systems. Our results reveal the existence of similar minimal conditions for the emergence of generalized synchronization of chaos in driven and in autonomous spatiotemporal systems.

Phase growth in bistable systems with impurities.

A system of coupled chaotic bistable maps on a lattice with randomly distributed impurities is investigated as a model for studying the phenomenon of phase growth in nonuniform media. The statistical properties of the system are characterized by means of the average size of spatial domains of equivalent spin variables that define the phases. It is found that the rate at which phase domains grow becomes smaller when impurities are present and that the average size of the resulting domains in the inhomogeneous state of the system decreases when the density of impurities is increased. The phase diagram showing regions where homogeneous, heterogeneous, and chessboard patterns occur on the space of parameters of the system is obtained. A critical boundary that separates the regime of slow growth of domains from the regime of fast growth in the heterogeneous region of the phase diagram is calculated. The transition between these two growth regimes is explained in terms of the stability properties of the local phase configurations. Our results show that the inclusion of spatial inhomogeneities can be used as a control mechanism for the size and growth velocity of phase domains forming in spatiotemporal systems.

Local versus global interactions in nonequilibrium transitions: A model of social dynamics.

A nonequilibrium system of locally interacting elements in a lattice with an absorbing order-disorder phase transition is studied under the effect of additional interacting fields. These fields are shown to produce interesting effects in the collective behavior of this system. Both for autonomous and external fields, disorder grows in the system when the probability of the elements to interact with the field is increased. There exists a threshold value of this probability beyond which the system is always disordered. The domain of parameters of the ordered regime is larger for nonuniform local fields than for spatially uniform fields. However, the zero field limit is discontinous. In the limit of vanishingly small probability of interaction with the field, autonomous or external fields are able to order a system that would fall in a disordered phase under local interactions of the elements alone. We consider different types of fields which are interpreted as forms of mass media acting on a social system in the context of Axelrod's model for cultural dissemination.

Synchronization in driven versus autonomous coupled chaotic maps.

The phenomenon of synchronization occurring in a locally coupled map lattice subject to an external drive is compared to the synchronization process in an autonomous coupled map system with similar local couplings plus a global interaction. It is shown that chaotic synchronized states in both systems are equivalent, but the collective states arising after the chaotic synchronized state becomes unstable can be different in these two systems. It is found that the external drive induces chaotic synchronization as well as synchronization of unstable periodic orbits of the local dynamics in the driven lattice. On the other hand, the addition of a global interaction in the autonomous system allows for chaotic synchronization which is not possible in a large coupled map system possessing only local couplings.

Nonequilibrium transition induced by mass media in a model for social influence.

We study the effect of mass media, modeled as an applied external field, on a social system based on Axelrod's model for the dissemination of culture. The numerical simulations show that the system undergoes a nonequilibrium phase transition between an ordered phase (homogeneous culture) specified by the mass media and a disordered (culturally fragmented) one. The critical boundary separating these phases is calculated on the parameter space of the system, given by the intensity of the mass media influence and the number of options per cultural attribute. Counterintuitively, mass media can induce cultural diversity when its intensity is above some threshold value. The nature of the phase transition changes from continuous to discontinuous at some critical value of the number of options.

Phase separation in coupled chaotic maps on fractal networks.

The phase ordering dynamics of coupled chaotic maps on fractal networks is investigated. The statistical properties of the systems are characterized by means of the persistence probability of equivalent spin variables that define the phases. The persistence saturates and phase domains freeze for all values of the coupling parameter as a consequence of the fractal structure of the networks, in contrast to the phase transition behavior previously observed in regular Euclidean lattices. Several discontinuities and other features found in the saturation persistence curve as a function of the coupling are explained in terms of changes of stability of local phase configurations on the fractals.

Emergence of patterns in driven and in autonomous spatiotemporal systems.

The relationship between a driven extended system and an autonomous spatiotemporal system is investigated in the context of coupled map lattice models. Specifically, a locally coupled map lattice subjected to an external drive is compared to a coupled map system with similar local couplings plus a global interaction. It is shown that, under some conditions, the emergent patterns in both systems are analogous. Based on the knowledge of the dynamical responses of the driven lattice, we present a method that allows the prediction of parameter values for the emergence of ordered spatiotemporal patterns in a class of coupled map systems having local coupling and general forms of global interactions.

Coupled map networks as communication schemes.

Networks of chaotic coupled maps are considered as string and language generators. It is shown that such networks can be used as encrypting systems where the cipher text contains information about the evolution of the network and also about the way to select the plain text symbols from the string associated with the network evolution. The secret key provides the network parameters, such as the coupling strengths.

Information transfer and nontrivial collective behavior in chaotic coupled map networks.

The emergence of nontrivial collective behavior in networks of coupled chaotic maps is investigated by means of a nonlinear mutual prediction method. The resulting prediction error is used to measure the amount of information that a local unit possesses about the collective dynamics. Applications to locally and globally coupled map systems are considered. The prediction error exhibits phase transitions at critical values of the coupling for the onset of ordered collective behavior in these networks. This information measure may be used as an order parameter for the characterization of complex behavior in extended chaotic systems.

Turbulence in small-world networks.

The transition to turbulence via spatiotemporal intermittency is investigated in the context of coupled maps defined on small-world networks. The local dynamics is given by the Chaté-Manneville minimal map previously used in studies of spatiotemporal intermittency in ordered lattice. The critical boundary separating laminar and turbulent regimes is calculated on the parameter space of the system, given by the coupling strength and the rewiring probability of the network. Windows of relaminarization are present in some regions of the parameter space. New features arise in small-world networks; for instance, the character of the transition to turbulence changes from second-order to a first-order phase transition at some critical value of the rewiring probability. A linear relation characterizing the change in the order of the phase transition is found. The global quantity used as order parameter for the transition also exhibits nontrivial collective behavior for some values of the parameters. These models may describe several processes occurring in nonuniform media where the degree of disorder can be continuously varied through a parameter.

Dynamics of coupling functions in globally coupled maps: size, periodicity, and stability of clusters.

It is shown how different globally coupled map systems can be analyzed under a common framework by focusing on the dynamics of their respective global coupling functions. We investigate how the functional form of the coupling determines the formation of clusters in a globally coupled map system and the resulting periodicity of the global interaction. The allowed distributions of elements among periodic clusters is also found to depend on the functional form of the coupling. Through the analogy between globally coupled maps and a single driven map, the clustering behavior of the former systems can be characterized. By using this analogy, the dynamics of periodic clusters in systems displaying a constant global coupling are predicted; and for a particular family of coupling functions, it is shown that the stability condition of these clustered states can straightforwardly be derived.

Pattern formation on trees.

Networks having the geometry and the connectivity of trees are considered as the spatial support of spatiotemporal dynamical processes. A tree is characterized by two parameters: its ramification and its depth. The local dynamics at the nodes of a tree is described by a nonlinear map, giving rise to a coupled map lattice system. The coupling is expressed by a matrix whose eigenvectors constitute a basis on which spatial patterns on trees can be expressed by linear combination. The spectrum of eigenvalues of the coupling matrix exhibit a nonuniform distribution that manifests itself in the bifurcation structure of the spatially synchronized modes. These models may describe reaction-diffusion processes and several other phenomena occurring on heterogeneous media with hierarchical structure.