Chimera Death: Symmetry Breaking in Dynamical Networks

For a network of generic oscillators with nonlocal topology and symmetry-breaking coupling we establish novel partially coherent inhomogeneous spatial patterns, which combine the features of chimera states (coexisting incongruous coherent and incoherent domains) and oscillation death (oscillation suppression), which we call "chimera death". We show that due to the interplay of nonlocality and breaking of rotational symmetry by the coupling, two distinct scenarios from oscillatory behavior to a stationary state regime are possible: a transition from an amplitude chimera to chimera death via in-phase synchronized oscillations and a direct abrupt transition for larger coupling strength.