Synchronous solutions and their stability in nonlocally coupled phase oscillators with propagation delays

We study the existence and stability of synchronous solutions in a continuum field of non-locally coupled identical phase oscillators with distance-dependent propagation delays. We present a comprehensive stability diagram in the parameter space of the system. From the numerical results a heuristic synchronization condition is suggested, and an analytic relation for the marginal stability curve is obtained. We also provide an expression in the form of a scaling relation that closely follows the marginal stability curve over the complete range of the non-locality parameter.Comment: accepted in Phys. Rev. E (2010

Swarm-Oscillators

Nonlinear coupling between inter- and intra-element dynamics appears as a collective behaviour of elements. The elements in this paper denote symptoms such as a bacterium having an internal network of genes and proteins, a reactive droplet, a neuron in networks, etc. In order to elucidate the capability of such systems, a simple and reasonable model is derived. This model exhibits the rich patterns of systems such as cell membrane, cell fusion, cell growing, cell division, firework, branch, and clustered clusters (self-organized hierarchical structure, modular network). This model is extremely simple yet powerful; therefore, it is expected to impact several disciplines.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Chimera Ising Walls in Forced Nonlocally Coupled Oscillators

Nonlocally coupled oscillator systems can exhibit an exotic spatiotemporal structure called chimera, where the system splits into two groups of oscillators with sharp boundaries, one of which is phase-locked and the other is phase-randomized. Two examples of the chimera states are known: the first one appears in a ring of phase oscillators, and the second one is associated with the two-dimensional rotating spiral waves. In this article, we report yet another example of the chimera state that is associated with the so-called Ising walls in one-dimensional spatially extended systems, which is exhibited by a nonlocally coupled complex Ginzburg-Landau equation with external forcing.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Hole Structures in Nonlocally Coupled Noisy Phase Oscillators

We demonstrate that a system of nonlocally coupled noisy phase oscillators can collectively exhibit a hole structure, which manifests itself in the spatial phase distribution of the oscillators. The phase model is described by a nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation, which can be reduced to the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation near the Hopf bifurcation point of the uniform solution. By numerical simulations, we show that the hole structure clearly appears in the space-dependent order parameter, which corresponds to the Nozaki-Bekki hole solution of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Non-universal results induced by diversity distribution in coupled excitable systems

We consider a system of globally coupled active rotators near the excitable regime. The system displays a transition to a state of collective firing induced by disorder. We show that this transition is found generically for any diversity distribution with well defined moments. Singularly, for the Lorentzian distribution (widely used in Kuramoto-like systems) the transition is not present. This warns about the use of Lorentzian distributions to understand the generic properties of coupled oscillators

Collective Phase Sensitivity

The collective phase response to a macroscopic external perturbation of a population of interacting nonlinear elements exhibiting collective oscillations is formulated for the case of globally-coupled oscillators. The macroscopic phase sensitivity is derived from the microscopic phase sensitivity of the constituent oscillators by a two-step phase reduction. We apply this result to quantify the stability of the macroscopic common-noise induced synchronization of two uncoupled populations of oscillators undergoing coherent collective oscillations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Multistable attractors in a network of phase oscillators with three-body interaction

Three-body interactions have been found in physics, biology, and sociology. To investigate their effect on dynamical systems, as a first step, we study numerically and theoretically a system of phase oscillators with three-body interaction. As a result, an infinite number of multistable synchronized states appear above a critical coupling strength, while a stable incoherent state always exists for any coupling strength. Owing to the infinite multistability, the degree of synchrony in asymptotic state can vary continuously within some range depending on the initial phase pattern.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

The Kuramoto model with distributed shear

We uncover a solvable generalization of the Kuramoto model in which shears (or nonisochronicities) and natural frequencies are distributed and statistically dependent. We show that the strength and sign of this dependence greatly alter synchronization and yield qualitatively different phase diagrams. The Ott-Antonsen ansatz allows us to obtain analytical results for a specific family of joint distributions. We also derive, using linear stability analysis, general formulae for the stability border of incoherence.Comment: 6 page

Paths to Synchronization on Complex Networks

The understanding of emergent collective phenomena in natural and social systems has driven the interest of scientists from different disciplines during decades. Among these phenomena, the synchronization of a set of interacting individuals or units has been intensively studied because of its ubiquity in the natural world. In this paper, we show how for fixed coupling strengths local patterns of synchronization emerge differently in homogeneous and heterogeneous complex networks, driving the process towards a certain global synchronization degree following different paths. The dependence of the dynamics on the coupling strength and on the topology is unveiled. This study provides a new perspective and tools to understand this emerging phenomena.Comment: Final version published in Physical Review Letter

Shear diversity prevents collective synchronization

Large ensembles of heterogeneous oscillators often exhibit collective synchronization as a result of mutual interactions. If the oscillators have distributed natural frequencies and common shear (or nonisochronicity), the transition from incoherence to collective synchronization is known to occur at large enough values of the coupling strength. However, here we demonstrate that shear diversity cannot be counterbalanced by diffusive coupling leading to synchronization. We present the first analytical results for the Kuramoto model with distributed shear, and show that the onset of collective synchronization is impossible if the width of the shear distribution exceeds a precise threshold