The mean field analysis of the Kuramoto model on graphs. I: The mean field equation and transition point formulas (Q1633126)

The Kuramoto model refers to an all-to-all coupled network of phase oscillators, with any two nodes coupled through the sine of their phase differences. The oscillators are heterogeneous, each having a randomly chosen intrinsic frequency. As the coupling strength between all oscillators is increased, the system switches from stable asynchrony to stable partial synchrony, where some fraction of the oscillators are locked to one another. This paper considers the Kuramoto model on networks with structure, but for which the families of networks have a well-defined limit as the number of oscillators goes to infinity. Examples include the Erdős-Rényi and small-world networks. The main contribution is the calculation of the values of the coupling strengths at which the asynchronous state loses linear stability. These expressions explicitly show the dependence of the stability of the asynchronous state on the network structure. This is one paper in a series of two; the second will investigate the nature of the bifurcations which occur as the asynchronous state loses stability.