Controlling Chimeras

Coupled phase oscillators model a variety of dynamical phenomena in nature and technological applications. Non-local coupling gives rise to chimera states which are characterized by a distinct part of phase-synchronized oscillators while the remaining ones move incoherently. Here, we apply the idea of control to chimera states: using gradient dynamics to exploit drift of a chimera, it will attain any desired target position. Through control, chimera states become functionally relevant; for example, the controlled position of localized synchrony may encode information and perform computations. Since functional aspects are crucial in (neuro-)biology and technology, the localized synchronization of a chimera state becomes accessible to develop novel applications. Based on gradient dynamics, our control strategy applies to any suitable observable and can be generalized to arbitrary dimensions. Thus, the applicability of chimera control goes beyond chimera states in non-locally coupled systems

Persistent chimera states in nonlocally coupled phase oscillators

Chimera states in the systems of nonlocally coupled phase oscillators are considered stable in the continuous limit of spatially distributed oscillators. However, it is reported that in the numerical simulations without taking such limit, chimera states are chaotic transient and finally collapse into the completely synchronous solution. In this paper, we numerically study chimera states by using the coupling function different from the previous studies and obtain the result that chimera states can be stable even without taking the continuous limit, which we call the persistent chimera state.Comment: To be published in Physical Review E (Rapid Communication), 5 pages, 7 figure

Nonlinearity of local dynamics promotes multi-chimeras

Chimera states are complex spatio-temporal patterns in which domains of synchronous and asynchronous dynamics coexist in coupled systems of oscillators. We examine how the character of the individual elements influences chimera states by studying networks of nonlocally coupled Van der Pol oscillators. Varying the bifurcation parameter of the Van der Pol system, we can interpolate between regular sinusoidal and strongly nonlinear relaxation oscillations, and demonstrate that more pronounced nonlinearity induces multi-chimera states with multiple incoherent domains. We show that the stability regimes for multi-chimera states and the mean phase velocity profiles of the oscillators change significantly as the nonlinearity becomes stronger. Furthermore, we reveal the influence of time delay on chimera patterns