Synchronization for fractional-order reaction–diffusion competitive neural networks with leakage and discrete delays

This paper is concerned with the synchronization of fractional-order competitive neural networks with reaction–diffusion terms and time delays. A novel method that combines the fractional-order Lyapunov theorem with M-matrix theory is utilized to cope with synchronization for the addressed networks. Based on such approach and developing two different controllers, some sufficient criteria are derived to guarantee global synchronization by employing the properties about Mittag–Leffler and trigonometric functions, comparison principle as well as the method of contradiction. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness of the established result.