Commutative quaternion and multistate Hopfield neural networks

This paper explores two types of multistate Hopfield neural networks, based on commutative quaternions that are similar to Hamilton´s quaternions but with commutative multiplication. In one type of the networks, the state of a neuron is represented by two kinds of phases and one real number. The other type of the networks adopts the decomposed form of commutative quaternion, i.e., the state of a neuron consists of a combination of two complex values. We have investigated the stabilities of these networks, i.e., the energies monotonically decreases with respect to the changes of the network states.