Transitions amongst synchronous solutions in the stochastic Kuramoto model (Q2888620)

The author considers the Kuramoto model of coupled oscillators with nearest-neighbour coupling and additive noise NEWLINE\[NEWLINEd\theta_{n}=\{\omega_{n}+K[\sin(\theta_{n+1}-\theta_{n})+\sin(\theta_{n-1}-\theta_{n})]\}dt+\sqrt{2\epsilon}\,dW_{t}^{(n)},\;\theta_0=0,NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(\theta_{n}\in[0,2\pi)\), \(W^{(n)}\) are independent Brownian motions, \(n=\overline{1,N-1}\). It is shown that synchronous solutions which are stable without the addition of noise become metastable and that transitions among synchronous solutions on long time scales occur. These time-scales and the most likely path in phase space that transitions will follow are computed. It is shown that these transition time-scales do not increase as the number of oscillators in the system increases. The author shows that the transitions correspond to a splitting of one synchronous solution into two communities which move independently for some time and which rejoin to form a different synchronous solution.