Coherence-incoherence patterns in a ring of non-locally coupled phase oscillators

Abstract

We consider a paradigmatic spatially extended model of non-locally coupled phase oscillators which are uniformly distributed within a one-dimensional interval and interact depending on the distance between their sites modulo periodic boundary conditions. This model can display peculiar spatio-temporal patterns consisting of alternating patches with synchronized (coherent) or irregular (incoherent) oscillator dynamics, hence the name coherence-incoherence pattern, or chimera state. For such patterns we formulate a general bifurcation analysis scheme based on a hierarchy of continuum limit equations. This gives us possibility to classify known coherence-incoherence patterns and to suggest directions for searching new ones