{"database":"biostudies-literature","file_versions":[],"scores":null,"additional":{"submitter":["Molnar F"],"funding":["Northwestern University’s Finite Earth Initiative","DOE | Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy"],"pagination":["1457"],"full_dataset_link":["https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC7935983"],"repository":["biostudies-literature"],"omics_type":["Unknown"],"volume":["12(1)"],"pubmed_abstract":["Behavioral homogeneity is often critical for the functioning of network systems of interacting entities. In power grids, whose stable operation requires generator frequencies to be synchronized-and thus homogeneous-across the network, previous work suggests that the stability of synchronous states can be improved by making the generators homogeneous. Here, we show that a substantial additional improvement is possible by instead making the generators suitably heterogeneous. We develop a general method for attributing this counterintuitive effect to converse symmetry breaking, a recently established phenomenon in which the system must be asymmetric to maintain a stable symmetric state. These findings constitute the first demonstration of converse symmetry breaking in real-world systems, and our method promises to enable identification of this phenomenon in other networks whose functions rely on behavioral homogeneity."],"journal":["Nature communications"],"pubmed_title":["Asymmetry underlies stability in power grids."],"pmcid":["PMC7935983"],"funding_grant_id":["DE-AR0000702"],"pubmed_authors":["Nishikawa T","Motter AE","Molnar F"],"additional_accession":[]},"is_claimable":false,"name":"Asymmetry underlies stability in power grids.","description":"Behavioral homogeneity is often critical for the functioning of network systems of interacting entities. In power grids, whose stable operation requires generator frequencies to be synchronized-and thus homogeneous-across the network, previous work suggests that the stability of synchronous states can be improved by making the generators homogeneous. Here, we show that a substantial additional improvement is possible by instead making the generators suitably heterogeneous. We develop a general method for attributing this counterintuitive effect to converse symmetry breaking, a recently established phenomenon in which the system must be asymmetric to maintain a stable symmetric state. These findings constitute the first demonstration of converse symmetry breaking in real-world systems, and our method promises to enable identification of this phenomenon in other networks whose functions rely on behavioral homogeneity.","dates":{"release":"2021-01-01T00:00:00Z","publication":"2021 Mar","modification":"2025-04-22T02:11:14.161Z","creation":"2025-04-05T20:12:23.084Z"},"accession":"S-EPMC7935983","cross_references":{"pubmed":["33674557"],"doi":["10.1038/s41467-021-21290-5"]}}