Cluster formation due to repulsive spanning trees in attractively coupled networks

Ensembles of coupled nonlinear oscillators are a popular paradigm and an ideal benchmark for analyzing complex collective behaviors. The onset of cluster synchronization is found to be at the core of various technological and biological processes. The current literature has investigated cluster synchronization by focusing mostly on the case of attractive coupling among the oscillators. However, the case of two coexisting competing interactions is of practical interest due to their relevance in diverse natural settings, including neuronal networks consisting of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, the coevolving social model with voters of opposite opinions, and ecological plant communities with both facilitation and competition, to name a few. In the present article, we investigate the impact of repulsive spanning trees on cluster formation within a connected network of attractively coupled limit-cycle oscillators. We successfully predict which nodes belong to each cluster and the emergent frustration of the connected networks independent of the particular local dynamics at the network nodes. We also determine local asymptotic stability of the cluster states using an approach based on the formulation of a master stability function. We additionally validate the emergence of solitary states and antisynchronization for some specific choices of spanning trees and networks.