Abstract
In this article, the problem of cluster synchronization in the complex networks with nonidentical nonlinear dynamics is considered. By Lyapunov functional and M-matrix theory, some sufficient conditions for cluster synchronization are obtained. Moreover, the least number of nodes which should be pinned is given. It is shown that when the root nodes of all the clusters are pinning-controlled, cluster synchronization with adaptive coupling strength can be achieved. Different from the constraints of many literatures, the assumption is that each row sum for all diagonal submatrices of the Laplacian matrix is equal to zero. Finally, a numerical simulation in the network with three scale-free subnetwork is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 380-387, 2016