Synchronization and Bellerophon states in conformist and contrarian oscillators

Sci Rep. 2016 Nov 9:6:36713. doi: 10.1038/srep36713.

Abstract

The study of synchronization in generalized Kuramoto models has witnessed an intense boost in the last decade. Several collective states were discovered, such as partially synchronized, chimera, π or traveling wave states. We here consider two populations of globally coupled conformist and contrarian oscillators (with different, randomly distributed frequencies), and explore the effects of a frequency-dependent distribution of the couplings on the collective behaviour of the system. By means of linear stability analysis and mean-field theory, a series of exact solutions is extracted describing the critical points for synchronization, as well as all the emerging stationary coherent states. In particular, a novel non-stationary state, here named as Bellerophon state, is identified which is essentially different from all other coherent states previously reported in the Literature. A robust verification of the rigorous predictions is supported by extensive numerical simulations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't