Testing Equivariant Dynamics in a Network of Reaction-Diffusion Oscillators

The theory of equivariant dynamics predicts symmetry-required spatiotemporal patterns in complex networks, yet its robustness to symmetry-disrupting imperfections in natural systems is unresolved. Here, we develop a model experimental reaction-diffusion network of chemical oscillators to test practical applications of this theory. The network is a symmetric ring of 4 microreactors containing the oscillatory Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction coupled to nearest neighbors via diffusion. Assuming perfect symmetry, theory predicts 4 categories of stable spatiotemporal phase-locked periodic states and 4 categories of invariant manifolds that guide and structure transitions between phase-locked states. In our experiments, we observed the predicted symmetry-derived synchronous clustered transients that occur when the dynamical trajectories coincide with invariant manifolds. However, we observe only 3 of the 4 phase-locked states that are predicted for the idealized homogeneous system. Quantitative agreement between experiment and numerical simulations is found by accounting for the small amount of experimentally determined heterogeneity. This work demonstrates that a surprising degree of the natural network's dynamics are constrained by equivariant dynamics in spite of the breakdown of the assumptions of perfect symmetry and raises the question of why heterogeneity destabilizes some symmetry predicted states, but not others.