Robust topological oscillators govern a tunable phase transition to synchronized circadian rhythms
arXiv:2607.13322
The paper proposes a mechanism by which stochastic circadian KaiC proteins, which follow topologically protected cycles, can synchronize through a phase transition that depends on the coherence of individual oscillators, and it analyzes how this transition scales from mesoscopic to macroscopic populations.
Abstract
While synchronization has been well-studied in deterministic oscillators, most underlying oscillators are stochastic in both natural and man-made systems. Yet, the effects of intrinsic stochasticity remain poorly understood. Here, we develop a new mechanism for synchronizing circadian KaiC molecules that have topologically protected cycles. We find a phase transition to synchronization that depends only on the single-oscillator coherence, across a range of molecular changes that determine this coherence. Examining both mesoscopic and macroscopic numbers relevant for cellular and in vitro conditions respectively, we find different scaling properties above and below the phase transition. Our results shed light on several existing experiments and further predict that external changes can be offset by compensatory changes that improve the single-oscillator coherence - demonstrating a tunable pathway between stochastic single oscillators and their robust collective rhythms.
Replacement to correct author order in metadata (no changes to manuscript)