  We analyze how the transient dynamics of large dynamical systems in the
vicinity of a stationary point, modeled by a set of randomly coupled linear
differential equations, depends on the network topology. We characterize the
transient response of a system through the evolution in time of the squared
norm of the state vector, which is averaged over different realizations of the
initial perturbation. We develop a mathematical formalism that computes this
quantity for graphs that are locally tree-like. We show that for unidirectional
networks the theory simplifies and general analytical results can be derived.
For example, we derive analytical expressions for the average squared norm for
random directed graphs with a prescribed degree distribution. These analytical
results reveal that unidirectional systems exhibit a high degree of
universality in the sense that the average squared norm only depends on a
single parameter encoding the average interaction strength between the
individual constituents. In addition, we derive analytical expressions for the
average squared norm for unidirectional systems with fixed diagonal disorder
and with bimodal diagonal disorder. We illustrate these results with numerical
experiments on large random graphs and on real-world networks.
