Counting equilibria of large complex systems by instability index

Gérard Ben Arous, Yan V. Fyodorov, Boris A. Khoruzhenko

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We consider a nonlinear autonomous system of N ≫ 1 degrees of freedom randomly coupled by both relaxational (“gradient”) and nonrelaxational (“solenoidal”) random interactions. We show that with increased interaction strength, such systems generically undergo an abrupt transition from a trivial phase portrait with a single stable equilibrium into a topologically nontrivial regime of “absolute instability” where equilibria are on average exponentially abundant, but typically, all of them are unstable, unless the dynamics is purely gradient. When interactions increase even further, the stable equilibria eventually become on average exponentially abundant unless the interaction is purely solenoidal. We further calculate the mean proportion of equilibria that have a fixed fraction of unstable directions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere2023719118
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume118
Issue number34
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 24 2021

Keywords

  • Complex systems
  • Equilibrium
  • Random matrices
  • Stability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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