Dynamical properties of electrical circuits with fully nonlinear memristors

The recent design of a nanoscale device with a memristive characteristic has had a great impact in nonlinear circuit theory. Such a device, whose existence was predicted by Leon Chua in 1971, is governed by a charge-dependent voltage-current relation of the form $v=M(q)i$. In this paper we show that allowing for a fully nonlinear characteristic $v=\eta(q, i)$ in memristive devices provides a general framework for modeling and analyzing a very broad family of electrical and electronic circuits; Chua's memristors are particular instances in which $\eta(q,i)$ is linear in $i$. We examine several dynamical features of circuits with fully nonlinear memristors, accommodating not only charge-controlled but also flux-controlled ones, with a characteristic of the form $i=\zeta(\varphi, v)$. Our results apply in particular to Chua's memristive circuits; certain properties of these can be seen as a consequence of the special form of the elastance and reluctance matrices displayed by Chua's memristors.Comment: 19 page

Twin subgraphs and core-semiperiphery-periphery structures

A standard approach to reduce the complexity of very large networks is to group together sets of nodes into clusters according to some criterion which reflects certain structural properties of the network. Beyond the well-known modularity measures defining communities, there are criteria based on the existence of similar or identical connection patterns of a node or sets of nodes to the remainder of the network. A key notion in this context is that of structurally equivalent or twin nodes, displaying exactly the same connection pattern to the remainder of the network. The first goal of this paper is to extend this idea to subgraphs of arbitrary order of a given network, by means of the notions of T-twin and F-twin subgraphs. This is motivated by the need to provide a systematic approach to the analysis of core-semiperiphery-periphery (CSP) structures, a notion which somehow lacks a formal treatment in the literature. The goal is to provide an analytical framework accommodating and extending the idea that the unique (ideal) core-periphery (CP) structure is a 2-partitioned K2. We provide a formal definition of CSP structures in terms of core eccentricities and periphery degrees, with semiperiphery vertices acting as intermediaries. The T-twin and F-twin notions then make it possible to reduce the large number of resulting structures by identifying isomorphic substructures which share the connection pattern to the remainder of the graph, paving the way for the decomposition and enumeration of CSP structures. We compute the resulting CSP structures up to order six. We illustrate the scope of our results by analyzing a subnetwork of the network of 1994 metal manufactures trade. Our approach can be further applied in complex network theory and seems to have many potential extensions

First order devices, hybrid memristors, and the frontiers of nonlinear circuit theory

Several devices exhibiting memory effects have shown up in nonlinear circuit theory in recent years. Among others, these circuit elements include Chua's memristors, as well as memcapacitors and meminductors. These and other related devices seem to be beyond the, say, classical scope of circuit theory, which is formulated in terms of resistors, capacitors, inductors, and voltage and current sources. We explore in this paper the potential extent of nonlinear circuit theory by classifying such mem-devices in terms of the variables involved in their constitutive relations and the notions of the differential- and the state-order of a device. Within this framework, the frontier of first order circuit theory is defined by so-called hybrid memristors, which are proposed here to accommodate a characteristic relating all four fundamental circuit variables. Devices with differential order two and mem-systems are discussed in less detail. We allow for fully nonlinear characteristics in all circuit elements, arriving at a rather exhaustive taxonomy of C^1-devices. Additionally, we extend the notion of a topologically degenerate configuration to circuits with memcapacitors, meminductors and all types of memristors, and characterize the differential-algebraic index of nodal models of such circuits.Comment: Published in 2013. Journal reference included as a footnote in the first pag

Cyclic matrices of weighted digraphs

We address in this paper several properties of so-called augmented cyclic matrices of weighted digraphs. These matrices arise in different applications of digraph theory to electrical circuit analysis, and can be seen as an enlargement of basic cyclic matrices of the form B W \rsp B^T, where $B$ is a cycle matrix and $W$ is a diagonal matrix of weights. By using certain matrix factorizations and some properties of cycle bases, we characterize the determinant of augmented cyclic matrices in terms of Cauchy-Binet expansions and, eventually, in terms of so-called proper cotrees. In the simpler context defined by basic cyclic matrices, we obtain a dual result of Maxwell's determinantal expansion for weighted Laplacian (nodal) matrices. Additional relations with nodal matrices are also discussed. Finally, we apply this framework to the characterization of the differential-algebraic circuit models arising from loop analysis, and also to the analysis of branch-oriented models of circuits including charge-controlled memristors

Circuit theory in projective space and homogeneous circuit models

This paper presents a general framework for linear circuit analysis based on elementary aspects of projective geometry. We use a flexible approach in which no a priori assignment of an electrical nature to the circuit branches is necessary. Such an assignment is eventually done just by setting certain model parameters, in a way which avoids the need for a distinction between voltage and current sources and, additionally, makes it possible to get rid of voltage- or current-control assumptions on the impedances. This paves the way for a completely general $m$-dimensional reduction of any circuit defined by $m$ two-terminal, uncoupled linear elements, contrary to most classical methods which at one step or another impose certain restrictions on the allowed devices. The reduction has the form $$\begin{pmatrix} AP \\ BQ \end{pmatrix} u = \begin{pmatrix} AQ \\ -BP \end{pmatrix} \bar{s}.$$ Here, $A$ and $B$ capture the graph topology, whereas $P$, $Q$, $\bar{s}$ comprise homogeneous descriptions of all the circuit elements; the unknown $u$ is an $m$-dimensional vector of (say) ``seed'' variables from which currents and voltages are obtained as $i=Pu -Q\bar{s}$, $v=Qu + P\bar{s}$. Computational implementations are straightforward. These models allow for a general characterization of non-degenerate configurations in terms of the multihomogeneous Kirchhoff polynomial, and in this direction we present some results of independent interest involving the matrix-tree theorem. Our approach can be easily combined with classical methods by using homogeneous descriptions only for certain branches, yielding partially homogeneous models. We also indicate how to accommodate controlled sources and coupled devices in the homogeneous framework. Several examples illustrate the results.Comment: Updated versio

Reduction methods for quasilinear differential-algebraic equations

Geometric reduction methods for differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) aim at an iterative reduction of the problem to an explicit ODE on a lower-dimensional submanifold of the so-called semistate space. This approach usually relies on certain algebraic (typically constant-rank) conditions holding at every reduction step. When these conditions are met the DAE is called regular. We discuss in this contribution several recent results concerning the use of reduction techniques in the analysis of quasilinear DAEs, not only for regular systems but also for singular ones, in which the above-mentioned conditions fail.Ministerio de Educación y Cienci

Comment: Is memristor a dynamic element?

The authors present a charge/flux formulation of the equations of memristive circuits, which seemingly show that the memristor should not be considered as a dynamic circuit element. Here, is shown that this approach implicitly reduces the dynamic analysis to a certain subset of the state space in such a way that the dynamic contribution of memristors is hidden. This reduction might entail a substantial loss of information, regarding e.g. the local stability properties of the circuit. Two examples illustrate this. It is concluded that the memristor, even with its unconventional features, must be considered as a dynamic element