We study networks of non-locally coupled electronic oscillators that can be
described approximately by a Kuramoto-like model. The experimental networks
show long complex transients from random initial conditions on the route to
network synchronization. The transients display complex behaviors, including
resurgence of chimera states, which are network dynamics where order and
disorder coexists. The spatial domain of the chimera state moves around the
network and alternates with desynchronized dynamics. The fast timescale of our
oscillators (on the order of 100ns) allows us to study the scaling
of the transient time of large networks of more than a hundred nodes, which has
not yet been confirmed previously in an experiment and could potentially be
important in many natural networks. We find that the average transient time
increases exponentially with the network size and can be modeled as a Poisson
process in experiment and simulation. This exponential scaling is a result of a
synchronization rate that follows a power law of the phase-space volume.Comment: http://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.90.03090
