Exponential distribution of lifetimes for transient bursting states in coupled noisy excitable systems.

The phenomenon of transient bursting, caused by additive noise in a set of two coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators, is studied by direct numerical integration and by measurements in the analog electronic circuit. In the parameter region where the unique global attractor of the deterministic system is the state of rest, introduction of low or moderate intensity fluctuations into the voltage dynamics results in the onset of a transient bursting state: sequences of intermittent bursts (patches of spikes), followed by ultimate relaxation to the equilibrium. Like genuine deterministic bursting, this behavior has its origin in the slow-fast character of the underlying dynamics. Trajectories that in the deterministic variant would converge to the state of rest can, under the action of noise, escape the local basin of attraction of the equilibrium and experience a bursting episode, before being dynamically reinjected into the region around the equilibrium. Under frozen parameter values and fixed noise intensity, the number of bursts preceding the ultimate decay strongly varies for different realizations of the additive random signal. The average duration of the transient bursting stage, bounded for weak noise, diverges when the intensity of fluctuations is raised. For sufficiently large ensembles of realizations, the lifetimes of transient bursting states, both in simulations and in the analog circuit, obey the exponential distribution. We relate this distribution to the probability for a stochastic trajectory to temporarily escape from the local basin of attraction of the equilibrium.

Emergence and stability of periodic two-cluster states for ensembles of excitable units.

We study dynamics in ensembles of identical excitable units with global repulsive interaction. Starting from active rotators with additional higher order Fourier modes in on-site dynamics, we observe, at sufficiently strong repulsive coupling, large-scale collective oscillations in which the elements form two separate clusters. Transitions from quiescence to clustered oscillations are caused by global bifurcations involving the unstable clustered steady states. For clusters of equal size, the scenarios evolve either through simultaneous formation of two heteroclinic trajectories or through two simultaneous saddle-node bifurcations on invariant circles. If the sizes of clusters differ, two global bifurcations are separated in the parameter space. Stability of clusters with respect to splitting perturbations depends on the kind of higher order corrections to on-site dynamics; we show that for periodic oscillations of two equal clusters the Watanabe-Strogatz integrability marks a change of stability. By extending our studies to ensembles of voltage-coupled Morris-Lecar neurons, we demonstrate that similar bifurcations and switches in stability occur also for more elaborate models in higher dimensions.

Subdiffusive and superdiffusive transport in plane steady viscous flows.

Deterministic transport of passive tracers in steady laminar plane flows of incompressible viscous fluids through lattices of solid bodies or arrays of steady vortices can be anomalous. Motion along regular patterns of streamlines is often aperiodic: Repeated slow passages near stagnation points and/or solid surfaces serve for eventual decorrelation. Singularities of passage times near the obstacles, dictated by the boundary conditions, affect the character of transport anomalies: Flows past arrays of vortices are subdiffusive whereas tracers advected through lattices of solid obstacles can feature superdiffusion. We calculate the transport characteristics with the help of the simple and computationally efficient model: the special flow.

Dynamics of spontaneous activity in random networks with multiple neuron subtypes and synaptic noise : Spontaneous activity in networks with synaptic noise.

Spontaneous cortical population activity exhibits a multitude of oscillatory patterns, which often display synchrony during slow-wave sleep or under certain anesthetics and stay asynchronous during quiet wakefulness. The mechanisms behind these cortical states and transitions among them are not completely understood. Here we study spontaneous population activity patterns in random networks of spiking neurons of mixed types modeled by Izhikevich equations. Neurons are coupled by conductance-based synapses subject to synaptic noise. We localize the population activity patterns on the parameter diagram spanned by the relative inhibitory synaptic strength and the magnitude of synaptic noise. In absence of noise, networks display transient activity patterns, either oscillatory or at constant level. The effect of noise is to turn transient patterns into persistent ones: for weak noise, all activity patterns are asynchronous non-oscillatory independently of synaptic strengths; for stronger noise, patterns have oscillatory and synchrony characteristics that depend on the relative inhibitory synaptic strength. In the region of parameter space where inhibitory synaptic strength exceeds the excitatory synaptic strength and for moderate noise magnitudes networks feature intermittent switches between oscillatory and quiescent states with characteristics similar to those of synchronous and asynchronous cortical states, respectively. We explain these oscillatory and quiescent patterns by combining a phenomenological global description of the network state with local descriptions of individual neurons in their partial phase spaces. Our results point to a bridge from events at the molecular scale of synapses to the cellular scale of individual neurons to the collective scale of neuronal populations.

Transport on intermediate time scales in flows with cat's eye patterns.

We consider the advection-diffusion transport of tracers in a one-parameter family of plane periodic flows where the patterns of streamlines feature regions of confined circulation in the shape of "cat's eyes," separated by meandering jets with ballistic motion inside them. By varying the parameter, we proceed from the regular two-dimensional lattice of eddies without jets to the sinusoidally modulated shear flow without eddies. When a weak thermal noise is added, i.e., at large Péclet numbers, several intermediate time scales arise, with qualitatively and quantitatively different transport properties: depending on the parameter of the flow, the initial position of a tracer, and the aging time, motion of the tracers ranges from subdiffusive to superballistic. We report on results of extensive numerical simulations of the mean-squared displacement for different initial conditions in ordinary and aged situations. These results are compared with a theory based on a Lévy walk that describes the intermediate-time ballistic regime and gives a reasonable description of the behavior for a certain class of initial conditions. The interplay of the walk process with internal circulation dynamics in the trapped state results at intermediate time scales in nonmonotonic characteristics of aging not captured by the Lévy walk model.

Anomalous transport in cellular flows: The role of initial conditions and aging.

We consider the diffusion-advection problem in two simple cellular flow models (often invoked as examples of subdiffusive tracer motion) and concentrate on the intermediate time range, in which the tracer motion indeed may show subdiffusion. We perform extensive numerical simulations of the systems under different initial conditions and show that the pure intermediate-time subdiffusion regime is only evident when the particles start at the border between different cells, i.e., at the separatrix, and is less pronounced or absent for other initial conditions. The motion moreover shows quite peculiar aging properties, which are also mirrored in the behavior of the time-averaged mean squared displacement for single trajectories. This kind of behavior is due to the complex motion of tracers trapped inside the cell and is absent in classical models based on continuous-time random walks with no dynamics in the trapped state.

Mechanisms of Self-Sustained Oscillatory States in Hierarchical Modular Networks with Mixtures of Electrophysiological Cell Types.

In a network with a mixture of different electrophysiological types of neurons linked by excitatory and inhibitory connections, temporal evolution leads through repeated epochs of intensive global activity separated by intervals with low activity level. This behavior mimics "up" and "down" states, experimentally observed in cortical tissues in absence of external stimuli. We interpret global dynamical features in terms of individual dynamics of the neurons. In particular, we observe that the crucial role both in interruption and in resumption of global activity is played by distributions of the membrane recovery variable within the network. We also demonstrate that the behavior of neurons is more influenced by their presynaptic environment in the network than by their formal types, assigned in accordance with their response to constant current.

Onset of time dependence in ensembles of excitable elements with global repulsive coupling.

We consider the effect of global repulsive coupling on an ensemble of identical excitable elements. An increase of the coupling strength destabilizes the synchronous equilibrium and replaces it with many attracting oscillatory states, created in the transcritical heteroclinic bifurcation. The period of oscillations is inversely proportional to the distance from the critical parameter value. If the elements interact with the global field via the first Fourier harmonics of their phases, the stable equilibrium is in one step replaced by the attracting continuum of periodic motions.

Sustained oscillations, irregular firing, and chaotic dynamics in hierarchical modular networks with mixtures of electrophysiological cell types.

The cerebral cortex exhibits neural activity even in the absence of external stimuli. This self-sustained activity is characterized by irregular firing of individual neurons and population oscillations with a broad frequency range. Questions that arise in this context, are: What are the mechanisms responsible for the existence of neuronal spiking activity in the cortex without external input? Do these mechanisms depend on the structural organization of the cortical connections? Do they depend on intrinsic characteristics of the cortical neurons? To approach the answers to these questions, we have used computer simulations of cortical network models. Our networks have hierarchical modular architecture and are composed of combinations of neuron models that reproduce the firing behavior of the five main cortical electrophysiological cell classes: regular spiking (RS), chattering (CH), intrinsically bursting (IB), low threshold spiking (LTS), and fast spiking (FS). The population of excitatory neurons is built of RS cells (always present) and either CH or IB cells. Inhibitory neurons belong to the same class, either LTS or FS. Long-lived self-sustained activity states in our network simulations display irregular single neuron firing and oscillatory activity similar to experimentally measured ones. The duration of self-sustained activity strongly depends on the initial conditions, suggesting a transient chaotic regime. Extensive analysis of the self-sustained activity states showed that their lifetime expectancy increases with the number of network modules and is favored when the network is composed of excitatory neurons of the RS and CH classes combined with inhibitory neurons of the LTS class. These results indicate that the existence and properties of the self-sustained cortical activity states depend on both the topology of the network and the neuronal mixture that comprises the network.

Nucleation in bistable dynamical systems with long delay.

In an asymmetric bistable dynamical system with delayed feedback, one of the stable states is usually "stronger" than the other one: The system relaxes to it not only from close initial conditions, but also from oscillatory initial configurations which contain epochs of stay near both attractors. However, if the initial nucleus of the stronger phase is shorter than a certain critical value, it shrinks, and the weaker state is established instead. We observe this effect in a paradigmatic model and in an experiment based on a bistable semiconductor laser and characterize it in terms of scaling laws governing its asymptotic properties.

Comment on "Time-averaged properties of unstable periodic orbits and chaotic orbits in ordinary differential equation systems".

A recent paper claims that mean characteristics of chaotic orbits differ from the corresponding values averaged over the set of unstable periodic orbits, embedded in the chaotic attractor. We demonstrate that the alleged discrepancy is an artifact of the improper averaging. Since the natural measure is nonuniformly distributed over the attractor, different periodic orbits make different contributions into the time averages. As soon as the corresponding weights are accounted for, the discrepancy disappears.

Stochastic hierarchical systems: excitable dynamics.

We present a discrete model of stochastic excitability by a low-dimensional set of delayed integral equations governing the probability in the rest state, the excited state, and the refractory state. The process is a random walk with discrete states and nonexponential waiting time distributions, which lead to the incorporation of memory kernels in the integral equations. We extend the equations of a single unit to the system of equations for an ensemble of globally coupled oscillators, derive the mean field equations, and investigate bifurcations of steady states. Conditions of destabilization are found, which imply oscillations of the mean fields in the stochastic ensemble. The relation between the mean field equations and the paradigmatic Kuramoto model is shown.

Ferrofluidic torsional pendulum driven by oscillating magnetic field.

A thin disk-shaped container filled with a ferrofluid and suspended in a horizontal linearly polarized ac magnetic field can perform torsional vibrations around its vertical diameter. In contrast to a recently studied spherical pendulum, the cell is sensitive to the field direction: It exposes its edge to the stationary or slowly oscillating magnetic field, and its broad side to the field of a high frequency. When the amplitude of the latter field is increased, the state of rest gets destabilized, yielding to oscillations near the equilibrium. Further growth of the field strength results in the onset of the cell rotation. We describe sequences of local and global bifurcations which accompany those transitions.

Nonlinear dynamics of a ferrofluid pendulum.

A ferrofluid torsion pendulum in an oscillating magnetic field exhibits a rich variety of nonlinear self-oscillatory regimes. The dynamics is governed by the system of coupled differential equations for the in- and off-axis components of the fluid magnetization and the pendulum angular deflection. In the limiting case of high driving frequency, the system reduces to the sole Rayleigh-type equation. Much more complicated temporal patterns arise when the field frequency and the pendulum eigen frequency are of the same order.

Role of unstable periodic orbits in phase and lag synchronization between coupled chaotic oscillators.

An increase of the coupling strength in the system of two coupled Rössler oscillators leads from a nonsynchronized state through phase synchronization to the regime of lag synchronization. The role of unstable periodic orbits in these transitions is investigated. Changes in the structure of attracting sets are discussed. We demonstrate that the onset of phase synchronization is related to phase-lockings on the surfaces of unstable tori, whereas transition from phase to lag synchronization is preceded by a decrease in the number of unstable periodic orbits.

Steady stokes flow with long-range correlations, fractal fourier spectrum, and anomalous transport.

We consider viscous two-dimensional steady flows of incompressible fluids past doubly periodic arrays of solid obstacles. In a class of such flows, the autocorrelations for the Lagrangian observables decay in accordance with the power law, and the Fourier spectrum is neither discrete nor absolutely continuous. We demonstrate that spreading of the droplet of tracers in such flows is anomalously fast. Since the flow is equivalent to the integrable Hamiltonian system with 1 degree of freedom, this provides an example of integrable dynamics with long-range correlations, fractal power spectrum, and anomalous transport properties.

Self-induced slow-fast dynamics and swept bifurcation diagrams in weakly desynchronized systems.

In systems close to the state of phase synchronization, the fast timescale of oscillations interacts with the slow timescale of the phase drift. As a result, "fast" dynamics is subjected to a slow modulation, due to which an autonomous system under fixed parameter values can imitate repeated bifurcational transitions. We demonstrate the action of this general mechanism for a set of two coupled autonomous chaotic oscillators and for a chaotic system perturbed by a periodic external force. In both cases, the Poincaré sections of phase portraits resemble bifurcation diagram of a logistic mapping with time-dependent parameter.

Multifractal Fourier spectra and power-law decay of correlations in random substitution sequences.

Binary symbolic sequences produced by randomly alternating substitution rules are considered. Exact expressions for the characteristics of autocorrelations and power spectra are derived. The decay of autocorrelation function obeys the power law. The Fourier spectral measure is either absolutely continuous or a mixture of the absolutely continuous and singular continuous components. For the latter case, the multifractal characteristics of this measure are computed.