Malihe Farasat | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Astroid Spinodal Boundary in Phase-Based Ising Machines

Oscillator Ising machines (OIMs) and dynamical Ising machines (DIMs) encode binary spins in phase states stabilized by second-harmonic injection (SHI). In a coupled network, the competition between SHI and the instantaneous local network field reshapes each oscillator's conditional energy landscape. We show that this competition drives a transition between monostable and bistable regimes through an astroid spinodal boundary. Near this boundary, the barrier scales as $ΔE_i\proptoμ_i^{3/2}$ at generic smooth points and as $ΔE_i\proptoμ_i^{2}$ at the longitudinal cusp. OIMs and DIMs obey the same spinodal geometry, with their conditional landscapes related by a reversal of the transverse field. Finally, the first-harmonic conditional landscape is mathematically equivalent, up to an additive constant, to the Stoner--Wohlfarth energy of a uniaxial magnetic particle.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2025

Spin Freezing in Oscillator Ising Machines: When Second Harmonic Injection Impedes Computation

Second harmonic injection (SHI) has emerged as a critical mechanism in enabling networks of coupled oscillators to function as Oscillator Ising Machines (OIMs), capable of minimizing the Ising Hamiltonian. While SHI facilitates phase binarization essential for mapping oscillator phases to spin states, we demonstrate that it can also induce a previously unreported phenomenon -- spin freezing -- where oscillator spins are unable to transition between spin states, even when such a transition can reduce the Ising energy. This freezing effect can impair the analog dynamics of the OIM, preventing it from reaching lower-energy spin configurations. Through theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, we show that the onset of spin freezing is highly sensitive to the initial phase configuration of the oscillators. Contrary to conventional practice, which favors random initialization, we find that initializing all oscillators at specific phase values ($ϕ= π$ or $ϕ= \fracπ{2}$) delays the onset of spin freezing and consistently yields higher-quality solutions. These findings point to the need to carefully engineer the SHI for optimal performance.

physics.comp-ph↗