Perceptrons with Hebbian learning based on wave ensembles in spatially patterned potentials

Self-organization of network dynamics into local quantized states

Self-organization and pattern formation in network-organized systems emerges from the collective activation and interaction of many interconnected units. A striking feature of these non-equilibrium structures is that they are often localized and robust: only a small subset of the nodes, or cell assembly, is activated. Understanding the role of cell assemblies as basic functional units in neural networks and socio-technical systems emerges as a fundamental challenge in network theory. A key open question is how these elementary building blocks emerge, and how they operate, linking structure and function in complex networks. Here we show that a network analogue of the Swift-Hohenberg continuum model-a minimal-ingredients model of nodal activation and interaction within a complex network-is able to produce a complex suite of localized patterns. Hence, the spontaneous formation of robust operational cell assemblies in complex networks can be explained as the result of self-organization, even in the absence of synaptic reinforcements.

Self-Interfering Wave Packets

We study the propagation of noninteracting polariton wave packets. We show how two qualitatively different concepts of mass that arise from the peculiar polariton dispersion lead to a new type of particlelike object from noninteracting fields-much like self-accelerating beams-shaped by the Rabi coupling out of Gaussian initial states. A divergence and change of sign of the diffusive mass results in a "mass wall" on which polariton wave packets bounce back. Together with the Rabi dynamics, this yields propagation of ultrafast subpackets and ordering of a spacetime crystal.