TY - JOUR A1 - Helfmann, Luzie A1 - Ribera Borrell, Enric A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Koltai, Peter T1 - Extending Transition Path Theory: Periodically Driven and Finite-Time Dynamics JF - Journal of Nonlinear Science Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s00332-020-09652-7 VL - 30 SP - 3321 EP - 3366 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Miron, Philippe A1 - Beron-Vera, Francisco A1 - Helfmann, Luzie A1 - Koltai, Péter T1 - Transition paths of marine debris and the stability of the garbage patches JF - Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science N2 - We used transition path theory (TPT) to infer "reactive" pathways of floating marine debris trajectories. The TPT analysis was applied on a pollution-aware time-homogeneous Markov chain model constructed from trajectories produced by satellite-tracked undrogued buoys from the NOAA Global Drifter Program. The latter involved coping with the openness of the system in physical space, which further required an adaptation of the standard TPT setting. Directly connecting pollution sources along coastlines with garbage patches of varied strengths, the unveiled reactive pollution routes represent alternative targets for ocean cleanup efforts. Among our specific findings we highlight: constraining a highly probable pollution source for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch; characterizing the weakness of the Indian Ocean gyre as a trap for plastic waste; and unveiling a tendency of the subtropical gyres to export garbage toward the coastlines rather than to other gyres in the event of anomalously intense winds. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0030535 VL - 31 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Helfmann, Luzie A1 - Heitzig, Jobst A1 - Koltai, Péter A1 - Kurths, Jürgen A1 - Schütte, Christof T1 - Statistical analysis of tipping pathways in agent-based models JF - Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. N2 - Agent-based models are a natural choice for modeling complex social systems. In such models simple stochastic interaction rules for a large population of individuals on the microscopic scale can lead to emergent dynamics on the macroscopic scale, for instance a sudden shift of majority opinion or behavior. Here we are introducing a methodology for studying noise-induced tipping between relevant subsets of the agent state space representing characteristic configurations. Due to a large number of interacting individuals, agent-based models are high-dimensional, though usually a lower-dimensional structure of the emerging collective behaviour exists. We therefore apply Diffusion Maps, a non-linear dimension reduction technique, to reveal the intrinsic low-dimensional structure. We characterize the tipping behaviour by means of Transition Path Theory, which helps gaining a statistical understanding of the tipping paths such as their distribution, flux and rate. By systematically studying two agent-based models that exhibit a multitude of tipping pathways and cascading effects, we illustrate the practicability of our approach. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00191-0 VL - 230 SP - 3249 EP - 3271 ER -