Chimera and globally clustered chimera: Impact of time delay

TL;DR

This paper investigates how coupling delay in diffusively coupled phase oscillators induces chimera and globally clustered chimera states, revealing complex dynamics and transitions to synchronization.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of delay-induced chimera and GCC states, including multi-clustered states and their stability, with numerical and theoretical insights.

Findings

Delay induces chimera and GCC states in coupled oscillators.

Multiple GCC states include periodic, aperiodic, and breather dynamics.

Increasing delay can lead to global synchronization.

Abstract

Following a short report of our preliminary results [Phys. Rev. E 79, 055203(R) (2009)], we present a more detailed study of the effects of coupling delay in diffusively coupled phase oscillator populations. We find that coupling delay induces chimera and globally clustered chimera (GCC) states in delay coupled populations. We show the existence of multi-clustered states that act as link between the chimera and the GCC states. A stable GCC state goes through a variety of GCC states, namely periodic, aperiodic, long-- and short--period breathers and becomes unstable GCC leading to global synchronization in the system, on increasing time delay. We provide numerical evidence and theoretical explanations for the above results and discuss possible applications of the observed phenomena.