Synchronization in a population of globally coupled chaotic oscillators

PACS. 05.45+b – Theory and models of chaotic systems. PACS. 64.60Cn – Order-disorder and statistical mechanics of model systems. Abstract. – We demonstrate synchronization transition in a large ensemble of non-identical chaotic oscillators, globally coupled via the mean field. We show that this coherent behaviour is due to synchronization of phases of these oscillators, while their amplitudes remain chaotic. Two types of transition, depending on the phase coherence properties of the individual systems, are described. A number of physical, chemical and biological systems can be viewed as large ensembles of weakly interacting non-identical oscillators [1]. One of the most popular models here is an ensemble of globally coupled non-linear oscillators. Such systems appear in the studies of Josephson junction arrays [2], oscillatory neuronal systems [3], multimode lasers [4], chargedensity waves [5], etc. Investigations of ensembles of non-linear continuous-time oscillators have revealed such interesting phenomena as clustering [6], existence of splay states [7], finite-size– induced transition [8], dephasing and bursting [9] and collective chaotic behaviour [6], [10]. A non-trivial transition to self-synchronization in a population of periodic oscillators with different