Disruption of Networks and System Dynamics

Networks are designed to ensure functioning of the underlying system and sustaining operability. However, disruption of networks is, in general, unavoidable. Internal interactions and effects of the external environment may result in the removal of nodes or edges. This can lead to unexpected collective behaviors. For example, removing a set of nodes or edges could induce a cascading failure in an electric power grid. This Focus Issue is devoted to recent advances in understanding the effects of disruptions of networks and their system dynamics. This subject remains in the focus of disruption of networks and their dynamics from the perspectives of data analysis, modelling and theoretical studies, as recently supported by empirical evidence. Topics in this Focus Issue cover disruptions on both empirical systems' dynamics (e.g., nuclear reaction networks, infrastructure networks, social networks, epidemics, brain dynamics, physiology, etc.) and various phenomena of collective behaviors (e.g., critical phase transitions, irregular collective dynamics, complex patterns of synchrony and asynchrony, chimera, anomalous oscillations, etc.) by using control theory, diffusion and other stochastic processes, network theory and other tools.

Guest Editors: Peng Ji, Jan Nagler, Matjaz Perc, Michael Small, and Jinghua Xiao