Chimera States — Nonlocally Coupled Oscillators

Chimera states are a remarkable spontaneous symmetry-breaking phenomenon in identical coupled oscillators: part of the ring synchronizes coherently while the rest remains incoherent. Discovered by Kuramoto & Battogtokh (2002), they appear in identically coupled systems with nonlocal coupling.

0.75
40
Top: oscillator phases on ring (color = phase). Bottom: local order parameter R(x).