Coupled Van der Pol-Duffing oscillators: phase dynamics and structure of synchronization tongues (Q833191)

The paper contains a number of results of detailed analytical and numerical investigations of synchronized states in a system of two coupled van der Pol-Duffing oscillators. Several important parameters responsible for the detuning of the amplitude and frequency of the oscillations, non-isochronism, where the oscillation frequency depends on the amplitude, and coupling strength are introduced and varied. The coupling between the oscillators is considered in a non-scalar form and includes both inertial and dissipative terms involving the variables of the oscillators and their first derivatives, respectively. The study clarifies the impact of the above parameters on the synchronized dynamics in the considered system. Analytical results obtained from the derived generalized Adler's equation for the phase dynamics are compared with those of numerical simulations of the original system. It is shown that if the non-identity, non-isochronism and coupling strength are small, the Adler's equation properly approximates the synchronized phase dynamics of the original system. However, if the above parameters become larger, the phase approximation fails to reflect the true dynamics of the coupled oscillators. This effect is well pronounced for high-order synchronization, if the amplitude of the oscillations starts to play an essential role in the phase dynamics, and for some combinations of the above properties of the oscillators. A number of analytically and numerically obtained bifurcation curves and numerically obtained synchronization regions in the parameter space illustrate the onset of synchronization and its multistability in the considered system as parameters vary. This study contributes to a thorough classification of the parameter space of the coupled oscillators with respect to the phase synchronized dynamics.