Localized synchronous patterns in weakly coupled bistable oscillator systems (Q7010459)

The authors study a finite chain of oscillators described by\N\[\N\dot{Z}_n=f(|Z_n|,\mu,\epsilon)Z_n+c\epsilon(Z_{n+1}-2Z_n+Z_{n-1})\N\]\Nwhere each \(Z_n\in\mathbb{C}\) and \(|c|=1\). The function \(f\) is chosen so that for a range of \(\mu\) values, an uncoupled oscillator (\(\epsilon=0\)) is bistable, having a stable fixed point at \(Z=0\), a stable periodic solution, and an unstable periodic solution. The authors are interested in patterns of localized synchrony and their continuation as \(\mu\) is varied. They show that for dissipative coupling (\(c=1\)) patterns of localized synchrony lie on a snaking branch for which all oscillators share the same phase. The branch starts close to the state where all nodes are at rest and ends close to the state where all nodes are in their stable oscillatory state. For conservative coupling (\(c=i\)) the system shows a discrete stack of closed isola branches, one for each given number of oscillatory states in a localized pattern. The paper contains a mix of rigorous analysis and numerical results.