Regime switching in coupled nonlinear systems: sources, prediction, and control

The focus issue intends to provide a holistic view on the origins, prediction and control of regime switching, which is fundamental to understanding both optimal function and breakdowns in various fields, from brain and gene networks to ecosystems, Earth's climate and financial markets. Switching events typically involve abrupt and/or irreversible regime shifts. This phenomenon may also be part of cyclic patterns or, as in case of spatiotemporal patterns, evolve more gradually via intermediate regimes with coexisting alternate-state domains. Despite the diversity of local dynamics and interactions, as well as a variety of spatial and temporal scales, switching phenomena typically follow some universal scenarios. These scenarios are associated with exceeding certain thresholds and manifest qualitatively similar dynamical and statistical fingerprints and precursors of switching. Thresholds are defined as boundaries between fractal attraction basins in multistable systems, slow passages through bifurcations, or critical rate of parameter variation beyond which state changes become non-adiabatic.

Guest Editors: Igor Franović, Richard Sebastian Eydam, Deniz Eroglu, and Jeroen S.W. Lamb