Title: Component response rate variation drives stability in large complex systems,
Abstract: The stability of a complex system generally decreases with increasing system
size and interconnectivity, a counterintuitive result of widespread importance
across the physical, life, and social sciences. Despite recent interest in the
relationship between system properties and stability, the effect of variation
in the response rate of individual system components remains unconsidered. Here
I vary the component response rates ($\boldsymbol{\gamma}$) of randomly
generated complex systems. I show that when component response rates vary, the
potential for system stability is markedly increased. Variation in
$\boldsymbol{\gamma}$ becomes increasingly important as system size increases,
such that the largest stable complex systems would be unstable if not for
$\boldsymbol{Var(\gamma)}$. My results reveal a previously unconsidered driver
of system stability that is likely to be pervasive across all complex systems.