Optimizing Coupled Oscillators for Stability.

Synchronization in chaotic oscillatory systems has a wide array of applications in biology, physics and communication systems. Over the past 10 years there has been considerable interest in the synchronization properties of small-world and scale-free networks. In this paper, we define the fitness of a configuration of coupled oscillators as its ability to synchronize. We then employ an optimization algorithm to determine network structures that lead to an enhanced ability to synchronize. The optimized networks generally have low clustering, small diameters, short path-length, are disassortative, and have a high degree of homogeneity in their degree and load distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]