Externally controlled attractor selection in a high-dimensional system.

A high-dimensional dynamical system with global couplings that can serve as a prototype for systems with very large numbers of attractors like memory is investigated and shown to be controllable by external inputs. By changing the duration that noise is added, final attractors are selected as the number of degrees of freedom of the nonsynchronized elements decreases one by one over time. Furthermore, it is found that this selection of attractors is also possible by controlling the sweeping speed of a parameter. The mechanism for this controlled selection is explained and shown to be rather general. Applications to attractor switching are given.