{"paper":{"title":"Bimodal Synchronization Performance: Why Noise and Sparse Connectivity Can Improve Collective Timing","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"Collective synchrony in pulse-coupled models appears only near a critical balance of quorum threshold and pulse duration, where added noise or fewer connections suppresses stable multi-cluster traps.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cs.MA","authors_text":"Andreagiovanni Reina, Heiko Hamann, Tianfu Zhang, Till Aust","submitted_at":"2026-05-17T00:38:49Z","abstract_excerpt":"Pulse-coupled oscillator models inspired by firefly synchronization are widely used to study decentralized time coordination in distributed systems. We analyze a discrete-time, discrete-phase firefly-inspired synchronization model and show that collective synchrony emerges only near a critical balance between the quorum threshold (fraction of pulsing neighbors required to trigger a phase update) and the pulse duration (how long agents remain detectable to others). Within this parameter region, the system exhibits bimodal performance: it either reaches near-perfect synchronization or becomes tr"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"collective synchrony emerges only near a critical balance between the quorum threshold (fraction of pulsing neighbors required to trigger a phase update) and the pulse duration (how long agents remain detectable to others). Within this parameter region, the system exhibits bimodal performance: it either reaches near-perfect synchronization or becomes trapped in stable multi-cluster states, where symmetrically phase-offset subgroups mutually reinforce one another and prevent global synchrony.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"The model assumes that interactions remain symmetric enough for phase-offset subgroups to form and persist as stable attractors without additional unmodeled perturbations or heterogeneities among agents.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"In a discrete pulse-coupled oscillator model, synchronization is bimodal near a critical quorum-pulse balance, with noise and sparse connectivity suppressing multi-cluster states to favor global timing.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"Collective synchrony in pulse-coupled models appears only near a critical balance of quorum threshold and pulse duration, where added noise or fewer connections suppresses stable multi-cluster traps.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"e1ec959c8dcade1b61a117e762701dfcd797046631923998b8f4e21e22a1174e"},"source":{"id":"2605.17206","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":"008c6cf9-3818-447d-b6ed-ec389d61111f","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-19T23:20:45.147746Z","strongest_claim":"collective synchrony emerges only near a critical balance between the quorum threshold (fraction of pulsing neighbors required to trigger a phase update) and the pulse duration (how long agents remain detectable to others). Within this parameter region, the system exhibits bimodal performance: it either reaches near-perfect synchronization or becomes trapped in stable multi-cluster states, where symmetrically phase-offset subgroups mutually reinforce one another and prevent global synchrony.","one_line_summary":"In a discrete pulse-coupled oscillator model, synchronization is bimodal near a critical quorum-pulse balance, with noise and sparse connectivity suppressing multi-cluster states to favor global timing.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"The model assumes that interactions remain symmetric enough for phase-offset subgroups to form and persist as stable attractors without additional unmodeled perturbations or heterogeneities among agents.","pith_extraction_headline":"Collective synchrony in pulse-coupled models appears only near a critical balance of quorum threshold and pulse duration, where added noise or fewer connections suppresses stable multi-cluster traps."},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2605.17206/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[{"name":"doi_compliance","ran_at":"2026-05-19T23:31:33.735556Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0},{"name":"doi_title_agreement","ran_at":"2026-05-19T23:31:20.412212Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0},{"name":"ai_meta_artifact","ran_at":"2026-05-19T22:33:23.729233Z","status":"skipped","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0},{"name":"claim_evidence","ran_at":"2026-05-19T22:01:57.936002Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0}],"snapshot_sha256":"18ad5854967e54d5008920befe575e54573acba9b872c06d462ee8c1f0f4fbd3"},"references":{"count":16,"sample":[{"doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2008.09.002","year":2008,"title":"Arenas , author A","work_id":"92266636-fe3e-41ff-b92e-efc5330cd395","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2022,"title":"In: Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2022), LNCS, vol","work_id":"6cdbaa89-01a5-4c80-99bc-099056f1f503","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.1007/978-3-031-20176-9_19","year":2022,"title":"Springer, Cham (2022).https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20176-9_19","work_id":"faef4554-9834-4485-a930-3aa4cc2f5fc1","ref_index":3,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":1976,"title":"Scientific American234(5), 74–85 (1976), http://www.jstor.org/stable/24950352","work_id":"b606124e-ebd2-4cdf-87ec-8b97ecc3d428","ref_index":4,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.1016/j.physd.2015.03.007","year":2006,"title":"International Journal Complex Systems1695, 28–38 (2006).https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.physd.2015.03.007","work_id":"b1c34083-821d-4af0-8d03-ac21321db263","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":16,"snapshot_sha256":"383a4f9b2c7323edeaee0afd5c3e6292758687dd1faaa65c7087cb683dbcfc13","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":2,"snapshot_sha256":"62050a0962f02808c053280591983c6f0b55c32e435b1dc8f4784ebc13cc852e"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}