Global dynamics of oscillator populations under common noise

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive theory describing how common noise synchronizes populations of identical and nonidentical oscillators, revealing the dynamics from initial growth to final convergence and extending to frequency mismatches.

Contribution

It introduces a global description of oscillator synchronization under common noise using the Watanabe-Strogatz transformation, applicable to both identical and nonidentical ensembles.

Findings

Order parameter grows linearly initially

Convergence to synchrony is exponentially fast

Stationary synchronization levels depend on noise and frequency mismatch

Abstract

Common noise acting on a population of identical oscillators can synchronize them. We develop a description of this process which is not limited to the states close to synchrony, but provides a global picture of the evolution of the ensembles. The theory is based on the Watanabe-Strogatz transformation, allowing us to obtain closed stochastic equations for the global variables. We show that on the initial stage, the order parameter grows linearly in time, while on the late stages the convergence to synchrony is exponentially fast. Furthermore, we extend the theory to nonidentical ensembles with the Lorentzian distribution of natural frequencies and determine the stationary values of the order parameter in dependence on driving noise and mismatch.