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This paper provides an overview of studies on nonlinear supratransmission and related phenomena. This effect consists in the transfer of energy at frequencies not supported by the systems under consideration. The supratransmission does not depend on the integrability of the system, it is resistant to damping and various classes of boundary conditions. In addition, a nonlinear discrete medium, under certain general conditions imposed on the structure, can create instability due to external periodic influence. This instability is the generative process underlying the nonlinear supratransmission. This is possible when the system supports nonlinear modes of various nature, in particular, discrete breathers. Then the energy penetrates into the system as soon as the amplitude of the external harmonic excitation exceeds the maximum amplitude of the static breather of the same frequency.

The effect of nonlinear supratransmission is an important property of many discrete structures. A necessary condition for its existence is the discreteness and nonlinearity of the medium. Its manifestation in systems of various nature speaks of its fundamentality and significance. This review considers the main works that touch upon the issue of nonlinear supratransmission in various systems, mainly model ones.

Many teams of authors are studying this effect. First of all, these are models described by discrete equations, including sin-Gordon and the discrete Schr¨odinger equation. At the same time, the effect is not exclusively model and manifests itself in full-scale experiments in electrical circuits, in nonlinear chains of oscillators, as well as in metastable modular metastructures. There is a gradual complication of models, which leads to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of supratransmission, and the transition to disordered structures and those with elements of chaos structures allows us to talk about a more subtle manifestation of this effect. Numerical asymptotic approaches make it possible to study nonlinear supratransmission in complex nonintegrable systems. The complication of all kinds of oscillators, both physical and electrical, is relevant for various real devices based on such systems, in particular, in the field of nano-objects and energy transport in them through the considered effect. Such systems include molecular and crystalline clusters and nanodevices. In the conclusion of the paper, the main trends in the research of nonlinear supratransmission are given.

Investigation of logical deterministic cellular automata models of population dynamics allows to reveal detailed individual-based mechanisms. The search for such mechanisms is important in connection with ecological problems caused by overexploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution and climate change. Classical models of population dynamics have the phenomenological nature, as they are “black boxes”. Phenomenological models fundamentally complicate research of detailed mechanisms of ecosystem functioning. We have investigated the role of fecundity and duration of resources regeneration in mechanisms of population growth using four models of ecosystem with one species. These models are logical deterministic cellular automata and are based on physical axiomatics of excitable medium with regeneration. We have modeled catastrophic death of population arising from increasing of resources regeneration duration. It has been shown that greater fecundity accelerates population extinction. The investigated mechanisms are important for understanding mechanisms of sustainability of ecosystems and biodiversity conservation. Prospects of the presented modeling approach as a method of transparent multilevel modeling of complex systems are discussed.

The paper simulated the spread of certain ideas in a professional virtual group. We consider the propagation of excitation in an inhomogeneous excitable medium of high connectivity. It is assumed that the network elements form a complete graph. Parameters of the elements are normally distributed. The simulation showed that interest in the idea can fade or fluctuate depending on the settings in the virtual group. The presence of a permanent excited element with relatively high activity leads to chaos — the fraction of members of the community actively interested in an idea varies irregularly.

Epidemic models are widely used to mimic social activity, such as spreading of rumors or panic. Simultaneously, models of excitable media are traditionally used to simulate the propagation of activity. Spreading of activity in the virtual community was simulated within two models: the SIRS epidemic model and the Wiener – Rosenblut model of the excitable media. We used network versions of these models. The network was assumed to be heterogeneous, namely, each element of the network has an individual set of characteristics, which corresponds to different psychological types of community members. The structure of a virtual network relies on an appropriate scale-free network. Modeling was carried out on scale-free networks with various values of the average degree of vertices. Additionally, a special case was considered, namely, a complete graph corresponding to a close professional group, when each member of the group interacts with each. Participants in a virtual community can be in one of three states: 1) potential readiness to accept certain information; 2) active interest to this information; 3) complete indifference to this information. These states correspond to the conditions that are usually used in epidemic models: 1) susceptible to infection, 2) infected, 3) refractory (immune or death due to disease). A comparison of the two models showed their similarity both at the level of main assumptions and at the level of possible modes. Distribution of activity over the network is similar to the spread of infectious diseases. It is shown that activity in virtual networks may experience fluctuations or decay.