Self-Emerging and Turbulent Chimeras in Oscillator Chains

TL;DR

This paper discovers a naturally forming chimera state in a homogeneous oscillator chain, which emerges through a supercritical bifurcation without special initial conditions, and analyzes its stability and transition to turbulence.

Contribution

It introduces a new type of self-emerging chimera in homogeneous oscillator chains and develops a theoretical framework using Ott-Antonsen approximation.

Findings

Chimera state emerges via supercritical bifurcation

Chimera stability analyzed through linear stability analysis

Transition from chimera to phase turbulence identified

Abstract

We report on a self-emerging chimera state in a homogeneous chain of nonlocally and nonlinearly coupled oscillators. This chimera, i.e. a state with coexisting regions of complete and partial synchrony, emerges via a supercritical bifurcation from a homogeneous state and thus does not require preparation of special initial conditions. We develop a theory of chimera basing on the equations for the local complex order parameter in the Ott-Antonsen approximation. Applying a numerical linear stability analysis, we also describe the instability of the chimera and transition to a phase turbulence with persistent patches of synchrony.