# Direct observation of chimera-like states in a ring of coupled electronic self-oscillators

## TL;DR

This paper reports the first direct experimental observation of chimera-like states in a ring of coupled electronic Wien-bridge oscillators, supported by numerical simulations of a derived lattice model with exponential spatial decay.

## Contribution

It introduces an experimental setup for observing chimera-like states in electronic oscillators and develops a lattice model with an exponential kernel to explain these phenomena.

## Key findings

- Chimera-like states observed experimentally in electronic oscillator rings.
- States involve coexistence of synchronized and incoherent regions.
- Traveling and stationary coexistence domains identified.

## Abstract

Chimera states are characterized by the symmetry-breaking coexistence of synchronized and incoherent groups of oscillators in certain chains of identical oscillators. We report on the direct experimental observation of states reminiscent of such chimeras within a ring of coupled electronic (Wien-bridge) oscillators, and compare these to numerical simulations of a theoretically derived model. Following up on earlier work characterizing the pairwise interaction of Wien-bridge oscillators by Kuramoto-Sakaguchi phase dynamics, we develop a lattice model for a chain thereof, featuring an {\it exponentially decaying} spatial kernel. We find that for certain values of the Sakaguchi parameter $\alpha$, chimera-like states involving the coexistence of two clearly-separated regions of distinct dynamical behavior can establish themselves in the ring lattice, characterized by both traveling and stationary coexistence domains of synchronization.