Inferring interactions of time-delayed dynamic networks by random state variable resetting

Abstract

Time delays exist widely in real systems, and time-delayed interactions can result in abundant dynamic behaviors and functions in dynamic networks. Inferring the time delays and interactions is challenging due to systematic nonlinearity, noises, a lack of information, and so on. Recently, Shi et al. proposed a random state variable resetting method to detect the interactions in a continuous-time dynamic network. By arbitrarily resetting the state variable of a driving node, the equivalent coupling functions of the driving node to any response node in the network can be reconstructed. In this paper, we introduce this method in time-delayed dynamic networks. To infer actual time delays, the nearest neighbor correlation (NNC) function for a given time delay is defined. The significant increments of NNC originate from the delayed effect. Based on the increments, the time delays can be reconstructed and the reconstruction errors depend on the sampling time interval. After time delays are accurately identified, the equivalent coupling functions can also be reconstructed. The numerical results have fully verified the validity of the theoretical analysis.