The mathematical modeling of entrained biological oscillators (Q801830)

Discontinuous asymptotic approximation of free relaxation oscillators of the type (1) \(\epsilon\) \(\dot x=y-F(x)\), \(\dot y=a-x,\) are given, where \(\epsilon\) is a small positive parameter and F a continuous, piecewise differentiable function satisfying \(F(x)\to \pm \infty\) as \(x\to \pm \infty\) and with one local maximum and minimum. Furthermore the case is considered where a periodic forcing term with an amplitude of order O(\(\delta)\) is added to the equation. The forcing is of a type that does not change the limit cycle of the oscillator in the limit \(\epsilon\) \(\to 0\). If T denotes the period of the driving force then the mapping of the phase at time t to the one at time T can explicitly be computed for the case of piecewise linear relaxation oscillators. A stable fixed point of this mapping corresponds to an entrained solution. This method is extended to coupled oscillators. Next configurations of oscillators with diffusion coupling are studied. In three examples the relation with synchronization phenomena in biological systems are studied. The last example is a chemical one. Here it is shown that the mass action type kinetic differential equation of the Brusselator \(0\rightleftharpoons X\to Y,\) \(2X+Y\to 3X,\), can be transformed into an equation of the type (1); thus the system of weakly coupled Brusselators can be handled with the method described here.