Crowd synchrony and quorum sensing in delay-coupled lasers

TL;DR

This paper investigates how delay in information transmission affects synchronization in a system of optically coupled semiconductor lasers, revealing zero-lag synchronization despite non-identical laser frequencies and identifying different synchronization transition types.

Contribution

It introduces a delay-coupled laser model demonstrating zero-lag synchronization among non-identical lasers and explores how system parameters influence synchronization transitions.

Findings

Zero-lag synchronization occurs despite laser frequency differences.

Changing system parameters switches between different synchronization transitions.

Delay in coupling affects the nature of synchronization in laser networks.

Abstract

Crowd synchrony and quorum sensing arise when a large number of dynamical elements communicate with each other via a common information pool. Previous evidence in different fields, including chemistry, biology and civil engineering, has shown that this type of coupling leads to synchronization, when coupling is instantaneous and the number of coupled elements is large enough. Here we consider a situation in which the transmission of information between the system components and the coupling pool is not instantaneous. To that end, we model a system of semiconductor lasers optically coupled to a central laser with a delay. Our results show that, even though the lasers are non-identical due to their distinct optical frequencies, zero-lag synchronization arises. By changing a system parameter, we can switch between two different types of synchronization transition. The dependence of the transition with respect to the delay-coupling parameters is studied.