Groupoids, Fibrations, and Balanced Colorings of Networks

Robust synchrony in network dynamics is governed by balanced colorings and the corresponding quotient network, also formalized in terms of graph fibrations. Dynamics and bifurcations are constrained — often in surprising ways — by the associated synchrony subspaces, which are invariant under all admissible ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The class of admissible ODEs is determined by a groupoid, whose objects are the input sets of nodes and whose morphisms are input isomorphisms between those sets. We define the coloring subgroupoid corresponding to a coloring, leading to groupoid interpretations of colorings and quotient networks. The first half of the paper is mainly tutorial. The second half, which is new, characterizes the structure of the network groupoid and proves that the groupoid of the quotient network is the quotient of the network groupoid by a normal subgroupoid of transition elements.