Extension of Controllability Score to Infinite-Dimensional Systems

Abstract: Centrality analysis in dynamical network systems is essential for understanding system behavior. In finite-dimensional settings, controllability scores -- namely, the Volumetric Controllability Score (VCS) and the Average Energy Controllability Score (AECS) -- are defined as the unique solutions of specific optimization problems. In this work, we extend these concepts to infinite-dimensional systems by formulating analogous optimization problems. Moreover, we prove that these optimization problems have optimal solutions under weak assumptions, and that both VCS and AECS remain unique in the infinite-dimensional context under appropriate assumptions. The uniqueness of the controllability scores is essential to use them as a centrality measure, since it not only reflects the importance of each state in the dynamical network but also provides a consistent basis for interpretation and comparison across different researchers. Finally, we illustrate the behavior of VCS and AECS with a numerical experiment based on the heat equation.