Incoprea Research · Hypothesis tests III

Coupling spreads failure

The posted claim Coupling networks together improves efficiency and creates failure paths that neither network had; cascades should be larger in coupled systems.

What we did

Two Erdős–Rényi networks (N = 20,000, mean degree 4) coupled node-to-node. A fraction φ is removed from both, and a mutual-giant-component cascade propagates through the dependency links (Buldyrev et al. 2010).

What we found

The coupled system collapses (survival < 5%) at φ = 0.60, where a single network still has 24.9% of its nodes and collapses only at φ = 0.75. At φ = 0.60 the coupled system retains 0.7% of nodes — a 24-percentage-point coupling penalty.

survival vs removal fraction — Surviving fraction against the removal fraction for a single network and for two coupled networks.

Verdict: Supported.

Working results, 30 October 2026. Not peer reviewed. Not medical, investment or policy advice. Prepared with an AI system (DeepSeek Harness); no independent human review.