Explosive synchronization of multi-layer complex networks based on inter-layer star network connection

Explosive synchronization (ES) is a first-order transition phenomenon that is ubiquitous in various physical and biological systems. In recent years, researchers have focused on explosive synchronization in a single-layer network, but few in multi-layer networks. This paper proposes a frequency-weighted Kuramoto model in multi-layer complex networks with star connection between layers and analyzes the factors affecting the backward critical coupling strength by both theoretical analysis and numerical validation. Our results show that the backward critical coupling strength of each layer network is influenced by the inter-layer interaction strength and the average degree. The number of network layers, the number of nodes, and the network topology can not directly affect the synchronization of the network. Enhancing the inter-layer interaction strength can prevent the emergence of explosive synchronization and increasing the average degree can promote the generation of explosive synchronization.