Patterns of patterns of synchronization: Noise induced attractor switching in rings of coupled nonlinear oscillators

Abstract

Following the long-lived qualitative-dynamics tradition of explaining behavior in complex systems via the architecture of their attractors and basins, we investigate the patterns of switching between distinct trajectories in a network of synchronized oscillators. Our system, consisting of nonlinear amplitude-phase oscillators arranged in a ring topology with reactive nearest-neighbor coupling, is simple and connects directly to experimental realizations. We seek to understand how the multiple stable synchronized states connect to each other in state space by applying Gaussian white noise to each of the oscillators' phases. To do this, we first analytically identify a set of locally stable li..