Controlled generation of switching dynamics among metastable states in pulse-coupled oscillator networks

Switching dynamics among saddles in a network of nonlinear oscillators can be exploited for information encoding and processing (hence computing), but stable attractors in the system can terminate the switching behavior. An effective control strategy is presented to sustain switching dynamics in networks of pulse-coupled oscillators. The support for the switching behavior is a set of saddles, or unstable invariant sets in the phase space. We thus identify saddles with a common property, localize the system in the vicinity of them, and then guide the system from one metastable state to another to generate desired switching dynamics. We demonstrate that the control method successfully generates persistent switching trajectories and prevents the system from entering stable attractors. In addition, there exists correspondence between the network structure and the switching dynamics, providing fundamental insights on the development of a computing paradigm based on the switching dynamics.