title: Collective phase slips and phase synchronizations in coupled oscillator systems
abstract: Phase synchronization dynamics in coupled limit cycles with distributed natural frequencies are explored. A synchronization tree from free oscillations to local clustering and global phase locking is found. A desynchronization-induced transition to chaos is shown. Near the onset of various phase synchronization points, a simultaneous quantized stick-slip feature of the phases of oscillators is observed on the desynchronization side and heuristically interpreted in terms of a heteroclinic path instability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China and Department of Physics and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hu