{"title":"Asynchronicity yields regularity in coupled neuronal systems.","authors":"Anupama Roy, Sudeshna Sinha","doi":"10.1063/5.0309451","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0309451","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Asynchronicity is a fundamental feature of dynamical evolution of complex interactive systems. In this work, we explore the impact of asynchronicity on the spatiotemporal dynamics in a system of coupled chaotic neurons. Our crucial finding is that asynchronicity can suppress neuronal oscillations under sufficiently strong coupling. For strong asynchronicity, one obtains complete cessation of neuronal activity in a very wide window of coupling strengths, while for weaker asynchronicity, neuronal activity is quenched over a smaller range of coupling. We also rigorously analyze a system of two coupled neurons for the distinct cases of synchronous updates, sequential updates, and random asynchronous updates. We find that our stability analysis is in complete agreement with results from numerical simulations, offering an underlying rationale for the effects of asynchronicity. We also analyzed the dynamics of large systems in a time-averaged framework. Our analysis yields values of critical coupling very close to those obtained from simulations.</p>","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147632275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chaos and synchronization in financial leverages dynamics: Modeling systemic risk with coupled unimodal maps.","authors":"Marco Ioffredi, Stefano Marmi, Matteo Tanzi","doi":"10.1063/5.0320793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0320793","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Systemic financial risk refers to the simultaneous failure or destabilization of multiple financial institutions, often triggered by contagion mechanisms or common exposures to shocks. In this paper, we present a dynamical model of bank leverage-the ratio of asset holdings to equity-a quantity that both reflects and drives risk dynamics. We model how banks, constrained by Value-at-Risk regulations, adjust their leverage in response to changes in the price of a single asset, assumed to be held in a fixed proportion across banks. This leverage-targeting behavior introduces a procyclical feedback loop between asset prices and leverage. In the dynamics, this can manifest as logistic-like behavior with a rich bifurcation structure across model parameters. By analyzing these coupled dynamics in both isolated and interconnected bank models, we outline a framework for understanding how systemic risk can emerge from seemingly rational micro-level behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147627264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"General relativity in flat space-time.","authors":"Serge Aubry","doi":"10.1063/5.0285341","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0285341","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Einstein general relativity (GR) can be formally represented by a Lagrangian in a flat Minkowski space-time where light speed is not a universal constant and vanishes at the horizon of black holes. These appear as virtual singularities where no matter or energy can enter. We revisit the fundamental concepts of GR. Due to the principle of mass-energy equivalence, certain physical quantities, such as rest mass-energy, time, and light speed, must be rescaled according to the gravitational potential. We obtain a Lagrangian for a static gravitational potential (called germinal) different from the Schwarzschild Lagrangian but with the same black hole singularity. We develop a method that transforms a germinal Lagrangian into a fully relativistic Lagrangian. Then, the electrostatic Lagrangian becomes the well-known electromagnetic Lagrangian. The same method shows that the obtained germinal Lagrangian of gravitation generates a fully relativistic Lagrangian where gravitation is represented by a relativistic 4×4 tensor potential related to the Einstein stress-energy tensor. This theory is not equivalent to GR. In the weak gravitation limit, the Lagrangian generated by a stationary source only depends on a four-potential formally identical to that of the Heaviside theory of gravitation but different. As an application, we use this result in a simple model explaining the observed anomalies in the galaxy's stellar velocities without requiring hypothetical dark matter.</p>","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147627294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exact dimensional reduction for quasi-linear ODE ensembles.","authors":"Felix Augustsson, Erik A Martens, Rok Cestnik","doi":"10.1063/5.0291571","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0291571","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We present an exact dimensional reduction for ensembles of N identical dynamical units governed by ordinary differential equations of order M with quasi-linear structure. In these systems, each unit follows a linear differential equation whose coefficients depend nonlinearly on the ensemble of variables, such as a mean field, giving rise to a large class of network dynamical systems. We derive M+1 closed-form macroscopic equations of order M with variables that exactly capture the full microscopic dynamics and that allow for the exact reconstruction of individual trajectories from the reduced system. This dimensional reduction facilitates a simplified analysis of collective behavior in a new class of coupled oscillator networks and provides computationally efficient exact representations of large-scale dynamics. We illustrate our approach on two examples, highlighting new families of solvable models relevant to physics, biology, and engineering that are now amenable to simplified analysis.</p>","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147688667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Indirect reciprocity with environmental feedback.","authors":"Yishen Jiang, Xin Wang, Ming Wei, Wenqiang Zhu, Longzhao Liu, Hongwei Zheng, Shaoting Tang","doi":"10.1063/5.0334029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0334029","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Indirect reciprocity maintains cooperation in stranger societies by mapping individual behaviors onto reputation signals via social norms. Existing theoretical frameworks assume static environments with constant resources and fixed payoff structures. However, in real-world systems, individuals' strategic behaviors not only shape their reputation but also induce collective-level resource changes in ecological, economic, or other external environments, which, in turn, reshape the incentives governing future individual actions. To overcome this limitation, we establish a co-evolutionary framework that couples moral assessment, strategy updating, and environmental dynamics, allowing the payoff structure to dynamically adjust in response to the ecological consequences of collective actions. We find that this environmental feedback mechanism helps lower the threshold for the emergence of cooperation, enabling the system to spontaneously transition from a low-cooperation state to a stable high-cooperation regime, thereby reducing the dependence on specific initial conditions. Furthermore, while lenient norms demonstrate adaptability in static environments, norms with strict discrimination are shown to be crucial for curbing opportunism and maintaining evolutionary resilience in dynamic settings. Our results reveal the evolutionary dynamics of coupled systems involving reputation institutions and environmental constraints, offering a new theoretical perspective for understanding collective cooperation and social governance in complex environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147763570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Statistics of a large number of renewals in equilibrium and ordinary renewal processes at the short time limit.","authors":"Wanli Wang, Stanislav Burov","doi":"10.1063/5.0324747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0324747","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The renewal process is a key statistical model for describing a wide range of stochastic systems in physics. This work investigates the behavior of the probability distribution of the number of renewals in renewal processes at the short time limit, with a focus on cases where the number of renewals is large. We find that the specific details of the sojourn time distribution ϕ(τ) in this limit can significantly modify the behavior in the large-number-of-renewals regime. We explore both ordinary and equilibrium renewal processes, deriving results for various forms of ϕ(τ). Using saddle-point approximations, we analyze cases where ϕ(τ) follows a power-series expansion, includes a cutoff, or exhibits non-analytic behavior near τ=0. Additionally, we show how the short-time properties of ϕ(τ) shape the decay of the number of renewals in equilibrium compared to ordinary renewal processes. The probability of the number of renewals plays a crucial role in determining rare event behaviors, such as Laplace tails. The results obtained here are expected to help advance the development of a theoretical framework for rare events in transport processes in complex systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147763646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bystander effect emerges from individual psychological prospects.","authors":"Tiffanie Ng, Sara M Clifton","doi":"10.1063/5.0323615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0323615","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to help a person potentially in need if there are others present. Sociologists and psychologists have proposed multiple plausible reasons for the bystander effect, from situational ambiguity and social contagion to diffusion of responsibility and mutual denial. We build a new model of an individual's decision to intervene in a bystander situation based on these social psychological hypotheses, along with ideas borrowed from prospect theory. The model yields an explicit bystander curve, which demonstrates, for the first time, that the bystander effect emerges from social risk perception among non-coordinating individuals in ambiguous bystander situations. Expanding upon this static model, we explore the effect of social learning, where individuals update their perceived risk of intervening after experiencing or witnessing the social repercussions of previous interventions. A novel result of this piecewise-smooth dynamical system model, with threshold-driven switching behavior, is that social learning exacerbates the bystander effect. We validate both the static and dynamic models using a new database of 42 experimental and observational studies across a wide range of bystander situations, demonstrating the importance of both population heterogeneity and social learning rates on the emergence of observed bystander curves. This provides a straightforward and generalizable explanation for the observed phenomenon, which may suggest effective interventions tailored to specific bystander situations.</p>","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147763860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Continuous growth of social polarization for scale-free networks.","authors":"Bin Pan, Jianguo Liu","doi":"10.1063/5.0322613","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0322613","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding how local interactions generate social polarization is a central challenge in the study of collective dynamics. Prior work has established that homophily and social balance can trigger a first-order phase transition to polarization in homogeneous small-world networks. However, real-world social networks are structurally heterogeneous, featuring power-law degree distributions dominated by a few highly connected hubs. In this study, we investigate how this structural heterogeneity affects polarization dynamics by introducing the co-evolutionary opinion model on scale-free networks generated via a modified Holme-Kim model. We find that, in contrast to the discontinuous transition in small-world networks, social polarization for scale-free networks grows continuously with increasing connectivity, emerging earlier but reaching a lower magnitude. Individual-level analysis reveals that polarization is a hierarchical process concentrated among large-degree hubs, while most peripheral nodes remain weakly polarized. Counterfactual experiments demonstrate that neutralizing only the top 5% of large-degree nodes is sufficient to suppress system-wide polarization to the random baseline. Our findings reveal that network topology fundamentally alters the nature of polarization transitions and suggest that targeted interventions on influential nodes may be more effective than broad-based approaches for managing social polarization in heterogeneous societies.</p>","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147763936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Noise-enhanced stickiness in the Harper map.","authors":"J R Homan, J D Meiss","doi":"10.1063/5.0303868","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0303868","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Poincaré recurrence statistic (PRS) measures the probability that a trajectory initiated in a phase space region will first return to that region, as a function of time. For deterministic, area-preserving maps with a mixture of regular and chaotic orbits, the stickiness of invariant tori and islands is responsible for a power-law decay in the PRS. We show that noise perturbations allow trajectories to access the interior of islands, enhancing their trapping effect and causing many orbits to take longer to return to a neighborhood of their initial conditions. The noisy PRS can then exhibit an extended tail on an intermediate time scale, which is eventually followed by an asymptotic exponential decay. We study a typical example, the Harper map, and compare distributions of trapping and visit times to islands with recurrence times to show the importance of noise in creating tails in the PRS. A simple finite-state Markov model of the dynamics confirms how this slower decay can be caused by noise permitting entry to previously inaccessible regions.</p>","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147590113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Erratum: \"Dynamical analysis of a class of Caputo hetero-order fractional differential systems with double time delays\" [Chaos 36, 013133 (2026)].","authors":"Wangwang Liu, Xiaolin Lin, Danfeng Pang, Yawei Xue","doi":"10.1063/5.0325928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0325928","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9974,"journal":{"name":"Chaos","volume":"36 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147644258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}