2025/05/07 by Ocampo-Espindola, Jorge Luis, Bick, Christian, Motter, Adilson E. +1 · 2 citations
#Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems (nlin.AO) #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.04714
It is widely held that identical systems tend to behave similarly under comparable conditions. Yet, for systems that interact through a network, symmetry breaking can lead to scenarios in which this expectation does not hold. Prominent examples are chimera states in multistable phase-oscillator networks. Here, we show that for a broad class of such networks, asynchronous states can be converted into frequency-synchronized states when identical oscillators are detuned to have different intrinsic frequencies. Importantly, we show that frequency synchronization is achieved over a range of intrinsic frequency detuning and is thus a robust effect. These results, which are supported by theory, simulations, and electrochemical oscillator experiments, reveal a counterintuitive opportunity to use parameter heterogeneity to promote synchronization.