Phase-flip bifurcation in a coupled Josephson junction neuron system

Aiming to understand group behaviors and dynamics of neural networks, we have previously proposed the Josephson junction neuron (JJ neuron) as a fast analog model that mimics a biological neuron using superconducting Josephson junctions. In this study, we further analyze the dynamics of the JJ neuron numerically by coupling one JJ neuron to another In this coupled system we observe a phase-flip bifurcation, where the neurons synchronize out-of-phase at weak coupling and in-phase at strong coupling. We verify this by simulation of the circuit equations and construct a bifurcation diagram for varying coupling strength using the phase response curve and spike phase difference map. The phase-flip bifurcation could be observed experimentally using standard digital superconducting circuitry. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.