Limits on reconstruction of dynamical networks

Abstract: An observability condition number is defined for physical systems modeled by network dynamics. Assuming the dynamical equations of the network are known and a noisy trajectory is observed at a subset of the nodes, we calculate the expected distance to the nearest correct trajectory as a function of the observation noise level, and discuss how it varies over the unobserved nodes of the network. When the condition number is sufficiently large, reconstructing the trajectory from observations from the subset will be infeasible. This knowledge can be used to choose an optimal subset from which to observe a network.