Synchronization of globally coupled phase oscillators: singularities and scaling for general couplings

The onset of collective behavior in a population of globally coupled oscillators with randomly distributed frequencies is studied for phase dynamical models with arbitrary coupling; the effect of a stochastic temporal variation in the frequencies is also included. The Fokker-Planck equation for the coupled Langevin system is reduced to a kinetic equation for the oscillator distribution function. Instabilities of the phase-incoherent state are studied by center manifold reduction to the amplitude dynamics of the unstable modes. Depending on the coupling, the coefficients in the normal form can be singular in the limit of weak instability when the diffusive effect of the noise is neglected. A detailed analysis of these singularities to all orders in the normal form expansion is presented. Physically, the singularities are interpreted as predicting an altered scaling of the entrained component near the onset of synchronization. These predictions are verified by numerically solving the kinetic equation for various couplings and frequency distributions.     

Phase clustering in globally coupled photochemical oscillators

We experimentally investigate the formation of clusters in a population of globally coupled photochemical oscillators. The system consists of catalytic micro-particles in Belousov-Zhabotinsky solution and the coupling exploits the excitatory properties of light; an increase in the light intensity leads to excitation (“firing") of an oscillator. As the coupling strength is increased, a transition occurs from incoherence to clustering, whereby the oscillators split into synchronised groups, to complete synchronisation. Multistability is observed between a one-phase cluster (fully synchronised group) and two-phase clusters (two groups with the same frequency but different phases). The results are reproduced in simulations and we demonstrate that the heterogeneity of the population as well as the relaxational nature of the oscillators is important in the observation of clusters. We also examine the exploitation of the phase model for the prediction of clusters in experiments.     

Clusters and switchers in globally coupled photochemical oscillators

We experimentally investigate the transition to synchronization in a population of photochemical oscillators with weak global coupling. Above a critical coupling strength the oscillators join a one-phase group or two-phase clusters. The number of oscillators in each cluster depends on the initial phase distribution, and irregular switching of oscillators between clusters is observed. The fully synchronized state emerges above a second critical coupling strength. In agreement with earlier theory, the experiments demonstrate the importance of population heterogeneity in cluster multistability.     

Finite-size-induced transition in ensemble of globally coupled oscillators

The collective behavior of overdamped nonlinear noise-driven oscillators coupled via mean field is investigated numerically. When a coupling constant is increased, a transition in the dynamics of the mean field is observed. This transition scales with the number of oscillators and disappears when this number tends to infinity. Analytical arguments explaining the observed scaling are presented.     

Controlling synchronization in an ensemble of globally coupled oscillators

We propose a technique to control coherent collective oscillations in ensembles of globally coupled units (self-sustained oscillators or maps). We demonstrate numerically and theoretically that a time delayed feedback in the mean field can, depending on the parameters, enhance or suppress the self-synchronization in the population. We discuss possible applications of the technique.     

Clusters in an assembly of globally coupled bistable oscillators

We study the dynamics of an assembly of globally coupled bistable elements. We show that bistability of elements results in some new features of clustering in the assembly when there is global coupling. We provide conditions for the existence of stable amplitude-phase clusters and splay-phase states. Received 12 June 1998 and Received in final form 30 November 1998     

Diffusion-induced inhomogeneity in globally coupled oscillators: swing-by mechanism

It is shown that for random initial conditions, a large population of identical and sufficiently nonisochronous Stuart-Landau oscillators coupled globally and diffusively exhibits inhomogeneity in a resonant way as the diffusive coupling is intensified, where the diffusive coupling constant is real. A category of inhomogeneous (nonsynchronized) solutions is analytically shown to exist, which is either periodic or quasiperiodic.     

Extreme sensitivity to detuning for globally coupled phase oscillators

We discuss the sensitivity of a population of coupled oscillators to differences in their natural frequencies, i.e., to detuning. We argue that for three or more oscillators, one can get great sensitivity even if the coupling is strong. For N globally coupled phase oscillators we find there can be bifurcation to extreme sensitivity, where frequency locking can be destroyed by arbitrarily small detuning. This extreme sensitivity is absent for N = 2, appears at isolated parameter values for N = 3 and N = 4, and can appear robustly for open sets of parameter values for N > or = 5 oscillators.     

Generating macroscopic chaos in a network of globally coupled phase oscillators

We consider an infinite network of globally coupled phase oscillators in which the natural frequencies of the oscillators are drawn from a symmetric bimodal distribution. We demonstrate that macroscopic chaos can occur in this system when the coupling strength varies periodically in time. We identify period-doubling cascades to chaos, attractor crises, and horseshoe dynamics for the macroscopic mean field. Based on recent work that clarified the bifurcation structure of the static bimodal Kuramoto system, we qualitatively describe the mechanism for the generation of such complicated behavior in the time varying case.     

Synchronization in a system of globally coupled oscillators with time delay

We study the synchronization phenomena in a system of globally coupled oscillators with time delay in the coupling. The self-consistency equations for the order parameter are derived, which depend explicitly on the amount of delay. Analysis of these equations reveals that the system in general exhibits discontinuous transitions in addition to the usual continuous transition, between the incoherent state and a multitude of coherent states with different synchronization frequencies. In particular, the phase diagram is obtained on the plane of the coupling strength and the delay time, and ubiquity of multistability as well as suppression of the synchronization frequency is manifested. Numerical simulations are also performed to give consistent results.     

Towards a quasi-periodic mean field theory for globally coupled oscillators

We show how a quasi-periodic mean field theory may be used to understand the chaotic dynamics and geometry of globally coupled complex Ginzburg-Landau equations. The Poincaré map of the mean field equations appears to have saddlenode-homoclinic bifurcations leading to chaotic motion, and the attractor has the characteristic ρ shape identified by numerical experiments on the full equations.     

Center manifold reduction for large populations of globally coupled phase oscillators

A bifurcation theory for a system of globally coupled phase oscillators is developed based on the theory of rigged Hilbert spaces. It is shown that there exists a finite-dimensional center manifold on a space of generalized functions. The dynamics on the manifold is derived for any coupling functions. When the coupling function is sin θ, a bifurcation diagram conjectured by Kuramoto is rigorously obtained. When it is not sin θ, a new type of bifurcation phenomenon is found due to the discontinuity of the projection operator to the center subspace.     

Experiments on arrays of globally coupled chaotic electrochemical oscillators: Synchronization and clustering

Experiments on chaotically oscillating arrays of 64 nickel electrodes in sulfuric acid were carried out. External resistors in parallel and series are added to vary the extent of global coupling among the oscillators without changing the other properties of the system. The array is heterogeneous due to small variations in the properties of the electrodes and there is also a small amount of noise. The addition of global coupling transforms a system of independent elements to a state of complete synchronization. At intermediate coupling strengths stable clusters, or condensates of elements, form. All the elements in a cluster follow the same chaotic trajectory but each cluster has its own dynamics; the system is thus temporally chaotic but spatially ordered. Many cluster configurations occur under the same conditions and transitions among them can be produced. For values of the coupling parameter on either side of the stable cluster region a non-stationary behavior occurs in which clustered and synchronized states alternately form and break up. Some statistical properties of the cluster states are determined. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.     

Resonance tongues in a system of globally coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators with time-periodic coupling strength

We investigate the dynamics of a population of globally coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators with a time-periodic coupling strength. While for synchronizing global coupling, the in-phase state is always stable, the oscillators split into several cluster states for desynchronizing global coupling, most commonly in two, irrespective of the coupling strength. This confines the ability of the system to form n:m locked states considerably. The prevalence of two and four cluster states leads to large 2:1 and 4:1 subharmonic resonance regions, while at low coupling strength for a harmonic 1:1 or a superharmonic 1:m time-periodic coupling coefficient, any resonances are absent and the system exhibits nonresonant phase drifting cluster states. Furthermore, in the unforced, globally coupled system the frequency of the oscillators in a cluster state is in general lower than that of the uncoupled oscillator and strongly depends on the coupling strength. Periodic variation of the coupling strength at twice the natural frequency causes each oscillator to keep oscillating with its autonomous oscillation period.     

Long-term fluctuations in globally coupled phase oscillators with general coupling: finite size effects

We investigate the diffusion coefficient of the time integral of the Kuramoto order parameter in globally coupled nonidentical phase oscillators. This coefficient represents the deviation of the time integral of the order parameter from its mean value on the sample average. In other words, this coefficient characterizes long-term fluctuations of the order parameter. For a system of N coupled oscillators, we introduce a statistical quantity D, which denotes the product of N and the diffusion coefficient. We study the scaling law of D with respect to the system size N. In other well-known models such as the Ising model, the scaling property of D is D～O(1) for both coherent and incoherent regimes except for the transition point. In contrast, in the globally coupled phase oscillators, the scaling law of D is different for the coherent and incoherent regimes: D～O(1/N(a)) with a certain constant a>0 in the coherent regime and D～O(1) in the incoherent regime. We demonstrate that these scaling laws hold for several representative coupling schemes.     

Two-cluster bifurcations in systems of globally pulse-coupled oscillators

For a system of globally pulse-coupled phase-oscillators, we derive conditions for stability of the completely synchronous state and all stationary two-cluster states and explain how the different states are naturally connected via bifurcations. The coupling is modeled using the phase-response-curve (PRC), which measures the sensitivity of each oscillator’s phase to perturbations. For large systems with a PRC, which is zero at the spiking threshold, we are able to find the parameter regions where multiple stable two-cluster states coexist and illustrate this by an example. In addition, we explain how a locally unstable one-cluster state may form an attractor together with its homoclinic connections. This leads to the phenomenon of intermittent, asymptotic synchronization with abating beats away from the perfect synchrony.     

Hopf-pitchfork singularities in coupled systems

It is known from the literature that a family consisting of two brusselators linearly coupled by diffusion unfolds strange attractors due to the generic occurrence of a 4-dimensional nilpotent singularity of codimension 4. In this paper the attention is placed on the Hopf-pitchfork singularities which are unfolded by that coupled system. We will see that the associated map of bifurcations is very rich and includes configurations which could also play the role of organizing centers of chaotic dynamics. As it happens in the case of two brusselators, the occurrence of Hopf-pitchfork singularities is expected when Hopf bifurcations are coupled by a diffusion mechanism. On the other hand, one of the most interesting problems in the context of coupled systems is the understanding of processes of synchronization/desynchronization. We will also illustrate the role of Hopf-pitchfork singularities as organizing centers of these processes.     

Bifurcations in globally coupled map lattices

The dynamics of globally coupled map lattices can be described in terms of a nonlinear Frobenius-Perron equation in the limit of large system size. This approach allows for an analytical computation of stationary states and their stability. The bifurcation behavior of coupled tent maps near the chaotic band merging point is presented. Furthermore, the time-independent states of coupled logistic equations are analyzed. The bifurcation diagram of the uncoupled map carries over to the map lattice. The analytical results are supplemented with numerical simulations     

Oscillation death in coupled oscillators

We study dynamical behaviors in coupled nonlinear oscillators and find that under certain conditions, a whole coupled oscillator system can cease oscillation and transfer to a globally nonuniform stationary state [i.e., the so-called oscillation death (OD) state], and this phenomenon can be generally observed. This OD state depends on coupling strengths and is clearly different from previously studied amplitude death (AD) state, which refers to the phenomenon where the whole system is trapped into homogeneously steady state of a fixed point, which already exists but is unstable in the absence of coupling. For larger systems, very rich pattern structures of global death states are observed. These Turing-like patterns may share some essential features with the classical Turing pattern.