Synchronization of complex networks: theories, approaches, applications and prospects

Complex networks are everywhere in the real world, e.g. the Internet, power grids, business networks, biological neural networks, social networks etc., and all such complex networks have close relationships with our daily life. A further investigation of these complex networks may not only help develop many important science disciplines but also bring on profound transformations of our life styles. Synchronization is a very important type of nonlinear phenomena existing ubiquitously in nature, and there are abundant cases of synchronization in various complex networks. Over the past ten years, scientists from different fields have further explored the synchronization of complex networks from different points of view, and main advances in related studies, including theories, approaches, applications and prospects, are briefly reviewed in the present paper in an attempt to further promote the current research on the synchronization of complex networks.