How Mobile Oscillators Reshape Dynamical Robustness in Complex Networks

Abstract

While the robustness of collective dynamics in static networks is well established, how agent mobility and network topology jointly shape dynamical robustness remains largely unexplored. In this letter, we investigate the robustness of mobile Stuart-Landau oscillators performing random walks on networks and interacting diffusively when co-located. In the rapid-mobility regime, we reduce the dynamics to a mean-field framework linking network degree statistics to an effective global coupling strength. We show analytically that increased degree heterogeneity in the network enhances the effective coupling strength, and strictly lowers the critical threshold of functional degradation for amplitude death. Numerical simulations confirm the predicted heterogeneity-dependent ordering of the transition thresholds, showing an earlier collective collapse in scale-free networks than in random or regular networks. Our results establish mobility and network heterogeneity as key determinants of robustness in mobile oscillator populations, with implications for resilient biological and engineered collectives.