Synchronization processes are ubiquitous despite the many connectivity patterns that complex systems can show. Usually, the emergence of synchrony is a macroscopic observable; however, the microscopic details of the system, as, e.g., the underlying network of interactions, is many times partially or totally unknown. We already know that different interaction structures can give rise to a common functionality, understood as a common macroscopic observable. Building upon this fact, here we propose network transformations that keep the collective behavior of a large system of Kuramoto oscillators invariant. We derive a method based on information theory principles, that allows us to adjust the weights of the structural interactions to map random homogeneous in-degree networks into random heterogeneous networks and vice versa, keeping synchronization values invariant. The results of the proposed transformations reveal an interesting principle; heterogeneous networks can be mapped to homogeneous ones with local information, but the reverse process needs to exploit higher-order information. The formalism provides analytical insight to tackle real complex scenarios when dealing with uncertainty in the measurements of the underlying connectivity structure.

• Received 9 February 2018
• Revised 6 April 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.97.060301