Multivaluedness in Networks: Theory

This brief note reports the fundamental phenomenon of implicit multivaluedness exhibited from one output to the other of two node-systems with a common input—referred to as counter-cascaded1 systems—under the appropriate conditions. The novel concepts of immanence and transcendence are introduced upon which the formulation and prove of a necessary and sufficient condition for multivaluedness are based; this is the main result of this note. Next, subsequent consequences of this result are presented. Among these is the fact that this result also holds for cascaded generalized systems.

The novel application of structural complexity reduction in directed networks presented next, demonstrates the utility of multivaluedness and is itself a contribution to the theory of signals and systems.

The significance of the work presented here is that it contributes toward the theory of systems and networks as well as toward the arsenal of tools for studying networks.