We describe a flexible and modular delayed-feedback nonlinear oscillator that
is capable of generating a wide range of dynamical behaviours, from periodic
oscillations to high-dimensional chaos. The oscillator uses electrooptic
modulation and fibre-optic transmission, with feedback and filtering
implemented through real-time digital-signal processing. We consider two such
oscillators that are coupled to one another, and we identify the conditions
under which they will synchronize. By examining the rates of divergence or
convergence between two coupled oscillators, we quantify the maximum Lyapunov
exponents or transverse Lyapunov exponents of the system, and we present an
experimental method to determine these rates that does not require a
mathematical model of the system. Finally, we demonstrate a new adaptive
control method that keeps two oscillators synchronized even when the coupling
between them is changing unpredictably.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures. To appear in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A (special
theme issue to accompany 2009 International Workshop on Delayed Complex
Systems