Achievement

Two IGERT trainees, Danny Goldstein (Physics) and Jessica Lowell (Computer Science) have worked with Bulbul Chakraborty on a project that investigates the effects of noise on synchronization of oscillators, as part of their research rotations. Jessica’s interest in the project was motivated by her desire to construct “design principles” that relied upon the use of noise to create patterns. Danny’s background in non-linear dynamical systems prompted him to ask how noise changes the nature of attractors. These differences in perspectives, lead to many interesting discussions. Concrete results that have emerged are (a) numerical results showing the difference between multiplicative noise and additive noise on synchronization patterns (Jessica), and (b) analysis of effects of demographic noise on coupled chemical oscillators illustrating the lasting influence of noise even for very large systems.