Unidirectionally coupled dynamical system is studied by focusing on the input
(or boundary) dependence. Due to convective instability, noise at an up-flow is
spatially amplified to form an oscillation. The response, given by the
down-flow dynamics, shows both analogue and digital changes, where the former
is represented by oscillation frequency and the latter by different type of
dynamics. The underlying universal mechanism for these changes is clarified by
the spatial change of the co-moving Lyapunov exponent, with which the condition
for the input dependence is formulated. The mechanism has a remarkable
dependence on the noise strength, and works only within its medium range.
Relevance of our mechanism to intra-cellular signal dynamics is discussed, by
making our dynamics correspond to the auto-catalytic biochemical reaction for
the chemical concentration, and the input to the external signal, and the noise
to the concentration fluctuation of chemicals.Comment: 31 pages (REVTeX) + 15 figure