2024/04/17 by Babette A. J. de Wolff, Sagnik Chakraborty, Bick, Christian +5 · 3 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #math.DS #nlin.AO #nlin.CD
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.11340
arxiv created 2026/07/29 · arxiv updated 2026/07/30
Coupled oscillators with time-delayed network interactions are critical to understand synchronization phenomena in many physical systems. Phase reductions to finite-dimensional phase oscillator networks yield explicit insights into their dynamics. However, first-order phase approximations - in which the time delay acts as a phase shift - fail to capture the delay-dependence of synchronization. We develop a systematic approach to derive phase reductions for delay-coupled oscillators to higher order. Beyond first order, already a second-order phase reduction captures delay-induced synchronization as demonstrated in coupled Stuart-Landau oscillators and experiments with delay-coupled electrochemical oscillators. Our results establish a general mechanism by which time delays reshape synchronization phenomena and reveal intrinsic limitations of widely used reduced phase models, with implications for a broad range of oscillator networks.