The spectrum of the locked state for the Kuramoto model of coupled oscillators (Q2571424)

Linear stability analysis of stationary states of the Kuramoto model \[ \dot \theta_j = \omega_j +\frac{K}{n} \sin (\theta_j - \theta_i), \quad i=1,\dots,n, \] is presented. The model is known to describe the phase dynamics of coupled oscillators. Here, \(\theta_i\) is the phase of the \(i\)th oscillator at time \(t\), \(\omega_j\) is its natural frequency and \(K\) is the coupling strength. It is shown that all but two of the eigenvalues are negative and merge into a continuous spectrum as the number \(n\) of the oscillators tends to infinity. The only eigenvalue, which determines stability, corresponds to a collective mode.