No Arabic abstract
An imperative condition for the functioning of a power-grid network is that its power generators remain synchronized. Disturbances can prompt desynchronization, which is a process that has been involved in large power outages. Here we derive a condition under which the desired synchronous state of a power grid is stable, and use this condition to identify tunable parameters of the generators that are determinants of spontaneous synchronization. Our analysis gives rise to an approach to specify parameter assignments that can enhance synchronization of any given network, which we demonstrate for a selection of both test systems and real power grids. Because our results concern spontaneous synchronization, they are relevant both for reducing dependence on conventional control devices, thus offering an additional layer of protection given that most power outages involve equipment or operational errors, and for contributing to the development of smart grids that can recover from failures in real time.
The dynamics of power-grid networks is becoming an increasingly active area of research within the physics and network science communities. The results from such studies are typically insightful and illustrative, but are often based on simplifying assumptions that can be either difficult to assess or not fully justified for realistic applications. Here we perform a comprehensive comparative analysis of three leading models recently used to study synchronization dynamics in power-grid networks -- a fundamental problem of practical significance given that frequency synchronization of all power generators in the same interconnection is a necessary condition for a power grid to operate. We show that each of these models can be derived from first principles within a common framework based on the classical model of a generator, thereby clarifying all assumptions involved. This framework allows us to view power grids as complex networks of coupled second-order phase oscillators with both forcing and damping terms. Using simple illustrative examples, test systems, and real power-grid datasets, we study the inherent frequencies of the oscillators as well as their coupling structure, comparing across the different models. We demonstrate, in particular, that if the network structure is not homogeneous, generators with identical parameters need to be modeled as non-identical oscillators in general. We also discuss an approach to estimate the required (dynamical) parameters that are unavailable in typical power-grid datasets, their use for computing the constants of each of the three models, and an open-source MATLAB toolbox that we provide for these computations.
While frameworks based on physical grounds (like the Drift-Diffusion Model) have been exhaustively used in psychology and neuroscience to describe perceptual decision-making in humans, analogous approaches for more complex situations like sequential (tree-like) decision making are still absent. For such scenarios, which involve a reflective prospection of future options to reach a decision, we offer a plausible mechanism based on the internal computation of the Shannons entropy for the different options available to the subjects. When a threshold in the entropy is reached this will trigger the decision, which means that the amount of information that has been gathered through sensory evidence is enough to assess the options accurately. Experimental evidence in favour of this mechanism is provided by exploring human performances during navigation through a maze on the computer screen monitored with the help of eye-trackers. In particular, our analysis allows us to prove that: (i) prospection is effectively being used by humans during such navigation tasks, and a quantification of the level of prospection used is attainable, (ii) the distribution of decision times during the task exhibits power-law tails, a feature that our entropy-based mechanism is able to explain, in contrast to classical decision-making frameworks.
Though many aggregation theories exist for physical, chemical and biological systems, they do not account for the significant heterogeneity found, for example, in populations of living objects. This is unfortunate since understanding how heterogeneous individuals come together in support of an extremist cause, for example, represents an urgent societal problem. Here we develop such a theory and show that the intrinsic population heterogeneity can significantly delay the gel transition point and change the gels growth rate. We apply our theory to examine how humans aggregate online in support of a particular extremist cause. We show that the theory provides an accurate description of the online extremist support for ISIS (so-called Islamic State) which started in late 2014.
Monitoring and modelling the power grid frequency is key to ensuring stability in the electrical power system. Many tools exist to investigate the detailed deterministic dynamics and especially the bulk behaviour of the frequency. However, far less attention has been paid to its stochastic properties, and there is a need for a cohesive framework that couples both short-time scale fluctuations and bulk behaviour. Moreover, commonly assumed uncorrelated stochastic noise is predominantly employed in modelling in energy systems. In this publication, we examine the stochastic properties of six synchronous power-grid frequency recording with high-temporal resolution of the Nordic Grid from September 2013, focusing on the increments of the frequency recordings. We show that these increments follow non-Gaussian statistics and display spatial and temporal correlations. Furthermore, we report two different physical synchronisation phenomena: a very short timescale phase synchronisation ($<2,$s) followed by a slightly larger timescale amplitude synchronisation ($2,$s-$5,$s). Overall, these results provide guidance on how to model fluctuations in power systems.
Many real-world networks exhibit a high degeneracy at few eigenvalues. We show that a simple transformation of the networks adjacency matrix provides an understanding of the origins of occurrence of high multiplicities in the networks spectra. We find that the eigenvectors associated with the degenerate eigenvalues shed light on the structures contributing to the degeneracy. Since these degeneracies are rarely observed in model graphs, we present results for various cancer networks. This approach gives an opportunity to search for structures contributing to degeneracy which might have an important role in a network.