Eur. Phys. J. B (2017) 90: 58
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2017-70560-7

Regular Article

Extended generalized recurrence plot quantification of complex circular patterns

¹ Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, P.O. Box 60 12 03, 14412 Potsdam, Germany
² Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Physics, Newtonstraße 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
³ Nizhny Novgorod State University, 23 Prospekt Gagarina BLDG 2, 603950 Nizhnij Novgorod, Russia

^a e-mail: maik.riedl@pik-potsdam.de

Received: 22 September 2016
Received in final form: 20 December 2016
Published online: 27 March 2017

Abstract

The generalized recurrence plot is a modern tool for quantification of complex spatial patterns. Its application spans the analysis of trabecular bone structures, Turing patterns, turbulent spatial plankton patterns, and fractals. Determinism is a central measure in this framework quantifying the level of regularity of spatial structures. We show by basic examples of fully regular patterns of different symmetries that this measure underestimates the orderliness of circular patterns resulting from rotational symmetries. We overcome this crucial problem by checking additional structural elements of the generalized recurrence plot which is demonstrated with the examples. Furthermore, we show the potential of the extended quantity of determinism applying it to more irregular circular patterns which are generated by the complex Ginzburg-Landau-equation and which can be often observed in real spatially extended dynamical systems. So, we are able to reconstruct the main separations of the system’s parameter space analyzing single snapshots of the real part only, in contrast to the use of the original quantity. This ability of the proposed method promises also an improved description of other systems with complicated spatio-temporal dynamics typically occurring in fluid dynamics, climatology, biology, ecology, social sciences, etc.