Robustness of oscillatory behavior in correlated networks

• Published in: PloS one 2015-04, Vol.10 (4), p.e0123722-e0123722
• Main Authors: Sasai, Takeyuki, Morino, Kai, Tanaka, Gouhei, Almendral, Juan A, Aihara, Kazuyuki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aging; Correlation analysis; Damage prevention; Damage tolerance; Engineering schools; Gene Regulatory Networks; Information science; Models, Biological; Networks; Numerical analysis; Oscillators; Phase transitions; Reproducibility of Results; Robustness (mathematics); Science; Studies; Topology
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123722

Understanding network robustness against failures of network units is useful for preventing large-scale breakdowns and damages in real-world networked systems. The tolerance of networked systems whose functions are maintained by collective dynamical behavior of the network units has recently been analyzed in the framework called dynamical robustness of complex networks. The effect of network structure on the dynamical robustness has been examined with various types of network topology, but the role of network assortativity, or degree-degree correlations, is still unclear. Here we study the dynamical robustness of correlated (assortative and disassortative) networks consisting of diffusively coupled oscillators. Numerical analyses for the correlated networks with Poisson and power-law degree distributions show that network assortativity enhances the dynamical robustness of the oscillator networks but the impact of network disassortativity depends on the detailed network connectivity. Furthermore, we theoretically analyze the dynamical robustness of correlated bimodal networks with two-peak degree distributions and show the positive impact of the network assortativity.