English

Symmetry-breaking transitions in networks of nonlinear circuit elements

Chaotic Dynamics 2010-11-22 v4 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Materials Science

Abstract

We investigate a nonlinear circuit consisting of N tunnel diodes in series, which shows close similarities to a semiconductor superlattice or to a neural network. Each tunnel diode is modeled by a three-variable FitzHugh-Nagumo-like system. The tunnel diodes are coupled globally through a load resistor. We find complex bifurcation scenarios with symmetry-breaking transitions that generate multiple fixed points off the synchronization manifold. We show that multiply degenerate zero-eigenvalue bifurcations occur, which lead to multistable current branches, and that these bifurcations are also degenerate with a Hopf bifurcation. These predicted scenarios of multiple branches and degenerate bifurcations are also found experimentally.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1006.5042,
  title  = {Symmetry-breaking transitions in networks of nonlinear circuit elements},
  author = {Martin Heinrich and Thomas Dahms and Valentin Flunkert and Stephen W. Teitsworth and Eckehard Schöll},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.5042},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

32 pages, 11 figures, 7 movies available as ancillary files