Topological synchronization of chaotic systems.

A chaotic dynamics is typically characterized by the emergence of strange attractors with their fractal or multifractal structure. On the other hand, chaotic synchronization is a unique emergent self-organization phenomenon in nature. Classically, synchronization was characterized in terms of macroscopic parameters, such as the spectrum of Lyapunov exponents. Recently, however, we attempted a microscopic description of synchronization, called topological synchronization, and showed that chaotic synchronization is, in fact, a continuous process that starts in low-density areas of the attractor. Here we analyze the relation between the two emergent phenomena by shifting the descriptive level of topological synchronization to account for the multifractal nature of the visited attractors. Namely, we measure the generalized dimension of the system and monitor how it changes while increasing the coupling strength. We show that during the gradual process of topological adjustment in phase space, the multifractal structures of each strange attractor of the two coupled oscillators continuously converge, taking a similar form, until complete topological synchronization ensues. According to our results, chaotic synchronization has a specific trait in various systems, from continuous systems and discrete maps to high dimensional systems: synchronization initiates from the sparse areas of the attractor, and it creates what we termed as the 'zipper effect', a distinctive pattern in the multifractal structure of the system that reveals the microscopic buildup of the synchronization process. Topological synchronization offers, therefore, a more detailed microscopic description of chaotic synchronization and reveals new information about the process even in cases of high mismatch parameters.

Percolation in interdependent and interconnected networks: abrupt change from second- to first-order transitions.

Robustness of two coupled networks systems has been studied separately only for dependency coupling [Buldyrev et al., Nature (London) 464, 1025 (2010)] and only for connectivity coupling [Leicht and D'Souza, e-print arXiv:0907.0894]. Here we study, using a percolation approach, a more realistic coupled networks system where both interdependent and interconnected links exist. We find rich and unusual phase-transition phenomena including hybrid transition of mixed first and second order, i.e., discontinuities like in a first-order transition of the giant component followed by a continuous decrease to zero like in a second-order transition. Moreover, we find unusual discontinuous changes from second-order to first-order transition as a function of the dependency coupling between the two networks.