Neural Networks for Modeling and Control of Particle Accelerators

We describe some of the challenges of particle accelerator control, highlight recent advances in neural network techniques, discuss some promising avenues for incorporating neural networks into particle accelerator control systems, and describe a neural network-based control system that is being developed for resonance control of an RF electron gun at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility, including initial experimental results from a benchmark controller.Comment: 21 p

Fast Synchronization of Perpetual Grouping in Laminar Visual Cortical Circuits

Perceptual grouping is well-known to be a fundamental process during visual perception, notably grouping across scenic regions that do not receive contrastive visual inputs. Illusory contours are a classical example of such groupings. Recent psychophysical and neurophysiological evidence have shown that the grouping process can facilitate rapid synchronization of the cells that are bound together by a grouping, even when the grouping must be completed across regions that receive no contrastive inputs. Synchronous grouping can hereby bind together different object parts that may have become desynchronized due to a variety of factors, and can enhance the efficiency of cortical transmission. Neural models of perceptual grouping have clarified how such fast synchronization may occur by using bipole grouping cells, whose predicted properties have been supported by psychophysical, anatomical, and neurophysiological experiments. These models have not, however, incorporated some of the realistic constraints on which groupings in the brain are conditioned, notably the measured spatial extent of long-range interactions in layer 2/3 of a grouping network, and realistic synaptic and axonal signaling delays within and across cells in different cortical layers. This work addresses the question: Can long-range interactions that obey the bipole constraint achieve fast synchronization under realistic anatomical and neurophysiological constraints that initially desynchronize grouping signals? Can the cells that synchronize retain their analog sensitivity to changing input amplitudes? Can the grouping process complete and synchronize illusory contours across gaps in bottom-up inputs? Our simulations show that the answer to these questions is Yes.Office of Naval Research (N00014-01-1-0624); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-01-1-03097

Exponential synchronization of complex networks with Markovian jump and mixed delays

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be obtained from the link - Copyright 2008 Elsevier LtdIn this Letter, we investigate the exponential synchronization problem for an array of N linearly coupled complex networks with Markovian jump and mixed time-delays. The complex network consists of m modes and the network switches from one mode to another according to a Markovian chain with known transition probability. The mixed time-delays are composed of discrete and distributed delays, both of which are mode-dependent. The nonlinearities imbedded with the complex networks are assumed to satisfy the sector condition that is more general than the commonly used Lipschitz condition. By making use of the Kronecker product and the stochastic analysis tool, we propose a novel Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional suitable for handling distributed delays and then show that the addressed synchronization problem is solvable if a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are feasible. Therefore, a unified LMI approach is developed to establish sufficient conditions for the coupled complex network to be globally exponentially synchronized in the mean square. Note that the LMIs can be easily solved by using the Matlab LMI toolbox and no tuning of parameters is required. A simulation example is provided to demonstrate the usefulness of the main results obtained.This work was supported in part by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of the UK under Grants BB/C506264/1 and 100/EGM17735, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK under Grants GR/S27658/01 and EP/C524586/1, an International Joint Project sponsored by the Royal Society of the UK, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China under Grant BK2007075, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 60774073, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany