Controlling Chimera States - The influence of excitable units

TL;DR

This paper investigates how adding excitable units to a network of FitzHugh-Nagumo elements can control and generate chimera states, enhancing understanding of complex pattern formation in nonlinear systems.

Contribution

It introduces the novel idea of controlling chimera states through excitable units in FitzHugh-Nagumo networks, expanding the methods for manipulating these states.

Findings

Excitable units can shift the position of chimera states.

A block of excitable units can generate chimera states from synchrony.

Control of chimera states is achieved via network modifications.

Abstract

We explore the influence of a block of excitable units on the existence and behavior of chimera states in a nonlocally coupled ring-network of FitzHugh-Nagumo elements. The FitzHugh-Nagumo system, a paradigmatic model in many fields from neuroscience to chemical pattern formation and nonlinear electronics, exhibits oscillatory or excitable behavior depending on the values of its parameters. Until now, chimera states have been studied in networks of coupled oscillatory FitzHugh-Nagumo elements. In the present work, we find that introducing a block of excitable units into the network may lead to several interesting effects. It allows for controlling the position of a chimera state as well as for generating a chimera state directly from the synchronous state.