Mobility-enhanced signal response in metapopulation networks of coupled oscillators

We investigate the effect of mobility on the response of coupled oscillators to a subthreshold external signal in metapopulation networks, wherein each node represents a subpopulation with overdamped bistable oscillators that can randomly diffuse between nodes. With increasing mobility rate, the oscillators undergo transitions from intrawell to interwell motion, demonstrating clearly mobility-enhanced signal amplification. Moreover, the response shows nonmonotonic dependence on the mobility rate, i.e., a maximal gain occurs at a moderate level of mobility. This interesting phenomenon is robust against variations in the overall density, network size, as well as network topology. In addition, a simple mean-field analysis is carried out to qualitatively illustrate the simulation results. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2013