Phase synchronization between several interacting processes from univariate data

A novel approach is suggested for detecting the presence or absence of synchronization between two or three interacting processes with different time scales in univariate data. It is based on an angle-of-return-time map. A model is derived to describe analytically the behavior of angles for a periodic oscillator under weak periodic and quasiperiodic forcing. An explicit connection is demonstrated between the return angle and the phase of the external periodic forcing. The technique is tested on simulated nonstationary data and applied to human heart rate variability data.     

Phase synchronization of instrumental music signals

Signal analysis is one of the finest scientific techniques in communication theory. Some quantitative and qualitative measures describe the pattern of a music signal, vary from one to another. Same musical recital, when played by different instrumentalists, generates different types of music patterns. The reason behind various patterns is the psycho-acoustic measures – Dynamics, Timber, Tonality and Rhythm, varies in each time. However, the psycho-acoustic study of the music signals does not reveal any idea about the similarity between the signals. For such cases, study of synchronization of long-term nonlinear dynamics may provide effective results. In this context, phase synchronization (PS) is one of the measures to show synchronization between two non-identical signals. In fact, it is very critical to investigate any other kind of synchronization for experimental condition, because those are completely non identical signals. Also, there exists equivalence between the phases and the distances of the diagonal line in Recurrence plot (RP) of the signals, which is quantifiable by the recurrence quantification measure τ-recurrence rate. This paper considers two nonlinear music signals based on same raga played by two eminent sitar instrumentalists as two non-identical sources. The psycho-acoustic study shows how the Dynamics, Timber, Tonality and Rhythm vary for the two music signals. Then, long term analysis in the form of phase space reconstruction is performed, which reveals the chaotic phase spaces for both the signals. From the RP of both the phase spaces, τ-recurrence rate is calculated. Finally by the correlation of normalized tau-recurrence rate of their 3D phase spaces and the PS of the two music signals has been established. The numerical results well support the analysis.     

Phase synchronization between collective rhythms of globally coupled oscillator groups: noisy identical case

We theoretically investigate the collective phase synchronization between interacting groups of globally coupled noisy identical phase oscillators exhibiting macroscopic rhythms. Using the phase reduction method, we derive coupled collective phase equations describing the macroscopic rhythms of the groups from microscopic Langevin phase equations of the individual oscillators via nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations. For sinusoidal microscopic coupling, we determine the type of the collective phase coupling function, i.e., whether the groups exhibit in-phase or antiphase synchronization. We show that the macroscopic rhythms can exhibit effective antiphase synchronization even if the microscopic phase coupling between the groups is in-phase, and vice versa. Moreover, near the onset of collective oscillations, we analytically obtain the collective phase coupling function using center-manifold and phase reductions of the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations.     

Synchronization of noisy systems by stochastic signals

We study, in terms of synchronization, the nonlinear response of noisy bistable systems to a stochastic external signal, represented by Markovian dichotomic noise. We propose a general kinetic model which allows us to conduct a full analytical study of the nonlinear response, including the calculation of cross-correlation measures, the mean switching frequency, and synchronization regions. Theoretical results are compared with numerical simulations of a noisy overdamped bistable oscillator. We show that dichotomic noise can instantaneously synchronize the switching process of the system. We also show that synchronization is most pronounced at an optimal noise level-this effect connects this phenomenon with aperiodic stochastic resonance. Similar synchronization effects are observed for a stochastic neuron model stimulated by a stochastic spike train.     

Analytically exact correction scheme for signal extraction from noisy magnitude MR signals

An analytically exact method is proposed to extract the signal intensity and the noise variance simultaneously from noisy magnitude MR signals. This method relies on a fixed point formula of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and a correction factor. The correction factor, which is a function of SNR, establishes a fundamental link between the variance of the magnitude MR signal and the variance of the underlying Gaussian noise in the two quadrature channels. A more general but very similar method is developed for parallel signal acquisitions with multiple receiver coils. In the context of MR imaging, the proposed method can be carried out on a pixel-by-pixel basis if the mean and the standard deviation of the magnitude signal are available.     

Time shifting chaotic signals using synchronization

In this paper we examine couplings that produce time-shifted synchronization. We find a surprising variety of time-shifted states can be attained without including an explicit time-delay term in the coupling. We characterize the observed synchronization by determining the dependence of the time shift and cross correlation between the drive and response oscillators on a tunable parameter. Our observations agree well with a recently introduced method for estimating the time shift and cross correlation using a transfer function.     

Measuring phase synchronization of superimposed signals

Phase synchronization is an important phenomenon that occurs in a wide variety of complex oscillatory processes. Measuring phase synchronization can therefore help to gain fundamental insight into nature. In this Letter we point out that synchronization analysis techniques can detect spurious synchronization, if they are fed with a superposition of signals such as in electroencephalography or magnetoencephalography data. We show how techniques from blind source separation can help to nevertheless measure the true synchronization and avoid such pitfalls.     

Phase synchronization of chaotic rotators

We demonstrate the existence of phase synchronization of two chaotic rotators. Contrary to phase synchronization of chaotic oscillators, here the Lyapunov exponents corresponding to both phases remain positive even in the synchronous regime. Such frequency locked dynamics with different ratios of frequencies are studied for driven continuous-time rotators and for discrete circle maps. We show that this transition to phase synchronization occurs via a crisis transition to a band-structured attractor.     

Phase synchronization in railway timetables

Timetable construction belongs to the most important optimization problems in public transport. Finding optimal or near-optimal timetables under the subsidiary conditions of minimizing travel times and other criteria is a targeted contribution to the functioning of public transport. In addition to efficiency (given, e.g., by minimal average travel times), a significant feature of a timetable is its robustness against delay propagation. Here we study the balance of efficiency and robustness in long-distance railway timetables (in particular the current long-distance railway timetable in Germany) from the perspective of synchronization, exploiting the fact that a major part of the trains run nearly periodically. We find that synchronization is highest at intermediate-sized stations. We argue that this synchronization perspective opens a new avenue towards an understanding of railway timetables by representing them as spatio-temporal phase patterns. Robustness and efficiency can then be viewed as properties of this phase pattern.     

Phase synchronization of chaotic intermittent oscillations

We study phase synchronization effects of chaotic oscillators with a type-I intermittency behavior. The external and mutual locking of the average length of the laminar stage for coupled discrete and continuous in time systems is shown and the mechanism of this synchronization is explained. We demonstrate that this phenomenon can be described by using results of the parametric resonance theory and that this correspondence enables one to predict and derive all zones of synchronization.     

Cryptography from noisy storage

We show how to implement cryptographic primitives based on the realistic assumption that quantum storage of qubits is noisy. We thereby consider individual-storage attacks; i.e., the dishonest party attempts to store each incoming qubit separately. Our model is similar to the model of bounded-quantum storage; however, we consider an explicit noise model inspired by present-day technology. To illustrate the power of this new model, we show that a protocol for oblivious transfer is secure for any amount of quantum-storage noise, as long as honest players can perform perfect quantum operations. Our model also allows us to show the security of protocols that cope with noise in the operations of the honest players and achieve more advanced tasks such as secure identification.     

Phase synchronization in unidirectionally coupled chaotic ratchets

We study chaotic phase synchronization of unidirectionally coupled deterministic chaotic ratchets. The coupled ratchets were simulated in their chaotic states and perfect phase locking was observed as the coupling was gradually increased. We identified the region of phase synchronization for the ratchets and show that the transition to chaotic phase synchronization is via an interior crisis transition to strange attractor in the phase space.     

Phase synchronization in fractional differential chaotic systems

We propose an analytical justification for phase synchronization of fractional differential equations. This justification is based upon a linear stability criterion for fractional differential equations. We then investigate the existence of phase synchronization in chaotic forced Duffing and Sprott-L fractional differential systems of equations. Our numerical results agree with those analytical justifications.     

Phase synchronization in ensembles of bursting oscillators

We study the effects of mutual and external chaotic phase synchronization in ensembles of bursting oscillators. These oscillators (used for modeling neuronal dynamics) are essentially multiple time scale systems. We show that a transition to mutual phase synchronization takes place on the bursting time scale of globally coupled oscillators, while on the spiking time scale, they behave asynchronously. We also demonstrate the effect of the onset of external chaotic phase synchronization of the bursting behavior in the studied ensemble by a periodic driving applied to one arbitrarily taken neuron. We also propose an explanation of the mechanism behind this effect. We infer that the demonstrated phenomenon can be used efficiently for controlling bursting activity in neural ensembles.     

Newtonian time synchronization with the help of light signals

As light clocks with equal “arms” moving with the same velocity have the same rate, then, with the help of two such clocks put at the opposite ends of their mutual “arm”, one can measure the laboratory's absolute velocity by rotating the apparatus over 360°.     

Phase synchronization in coupled Nd:YAG lasers

We investigate experimentally the transition to phase synchronization in coupled Nd:YAG lasers. As the coupling strength increases, the phase difference of two chaotic laser outputs develops from nonsynchronous to a phase-synchronous state via +/-2pi phase jumps. We analyze this transition.     

Phase synchronization on scale-free networks with community structure

In this Letter, we propose a growing network model that can generate scale-free networks with a tunable community strength. The community strength, C, is directly measured by the ratio of the number of external edges to that of the internal ones; a smaller C   corresponds to a stronger community structure. By using the Kuramoto model, we investigated the phase synchronization on this network and found an abnormal region (C?0.002$C?0.002$), in which the network has even worse synchronizability than the unconnected case (C=0$C=0$). On the other hand, the community effect will vanish when C exceeds 0.1. Between these two extreme regions, a stronger community structure will hinder global synchronization.     

Phase synchronization in unidirectionally coupled Ikeda time-delay systems

Phase synchronization in unidirectionally coupled Ikeda time-delay systems exhibiting non-phase-coherent hyperchaotic attractors of complex topology with highly interwoven trajectories is studied. It is shown that in this set of coupled systems phase synchronization (PS)does exist in a range of the coupling strength which is preceded by a transition regime (approximate PS)and a nonsynchronous regime. However, exact generalized synchronization does not seem to occur in the coupled Ikeda systems (for the range of parameters we have studied)even for large coupling strength, in contrast to our earlier studies in coupled piecewise-linear and Mackey-Glass systems [27,28]. The above transitions are characterized in terms of recurrence based indices, namely generalized autocorrelation function P(t), correlation of probability of recurrence (CPR), joint probability of recurrence (JPR)and similarity of probability of recurrence (SPR). The existence of phase synchronization is also further confirmed by typical transitions in the Lyapunov exponents of the coupled Ikeda time-delay systems and also using the concept of localized sets.