Science· 2026Q1
Disorder-promoted stability
- 1citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Nodal heterogeneity can enhance network stability, even with random disorder, when nodal dynamics are higher-dimensional and yield non-Hermitian Jacobians, challenging prior assumptions.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Nodal heterogeneity can enhance network stability in systems with higher-dimensional nodal dynamics and non-Hermitian Jacobians.
- This stabilizing effect of heterogeneity persists even with random disorder in network parameters.
- The findings challenge the conventional view that heterogeneity inherently destabilizes networks.
- Non-Hermiticity is identified as the underlying mechanism for these stabilizing effects, applicable even to one-dimensional dynamics through nonreciprocal interactions.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Previous studies of network dynamics have suggested that heterogeneity among nodes inhibits stability, which is at odds with the ubiquity of inherently heterogeneous natural and engineered systems. Here, we show that this conclusion arises from model reductions introduced for mathematical tractability and breaks down when nodal dynamics are higher-dimensional, yielding non-Hermitian Jacobians. In such systems, including neural, power-grid, and material networks, nodal heterogeneity can instead enhance stability, even when parameters are randomly disordered. Non-Hermiticity also underlies the stabilizing effects of network heterogeneity, which can arise even in one-dimensional nodal dynamics through nonreciprocal interactions, as shown for ecological networks. Our framework reveals disorder not as a liability but as a general resource for stabilizing complex systems.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Science, 2026 · DOI ↗
Continue with a free account
Ask the paper: 3 free questions a day about this paper; save it, get its citation, new summaries every day for your field. Takeaways are Premium.
Continue free on the webSign in with Google or Apple; no card needed. You come back to this paper.
On your phone:
Field: Artificial Intelligence
Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science