Exponential transients in continuous-time symmetric Hopfield nets

Abstract

We establish a fundamental result in the theory of continuous-time neural computation, by showing that so called continuous-time symmetric Hopfield nets, whose asymptotic convergence is always guaranteed by the existence of a Liapunov function may, in the worst case, possess a transient period that is exponential in the network size. The result stands in contrast to e.g. the use of such network models in combinatorial optimization applications.