Divide and conquer

Our work focus on the response to changing environments of systems composed by units coupled through both attractive and repulsive links. We see that the global coherent response is optimal for a given fraction of repulsive links, and show how the enhancement of response is related to an order-disorder transition region. We will give examples of some generic systems - like Ising networks, bistable ensembles, or opinion formation models - to compare what is different and similar for driven inhomogeneous systems depending on the type of units. We stress in particular the ability to adapt to various types of environments, from fast-changing, to slow, to extreme or moderate. Possible areas of applications include, for instance, information processing by networks of neurons with inhibitory and excitatory synapses, or the response of a society with friends and enemies to global messages.

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