title: Effects of disorder on synchronization of discrete phase-coupled oscillators.
abstract: We study synchronization in populations of phase-coupled stochastic three-state oscillators characterized by a distribution of transition rates. We present results on an exactly solvable dimer as well as a systematic characterization of globally connected arrays of N types of oscillators (N=2,3,4) by exploring the linear stability of the nonsynchronous fixed point. We also provide results for globally coupled arrays where the transition rate of each unit is drawn from a uniform distribution of finite width. Even in the presence of transition rate disorder, numerical and analytical results point to a single phase transition to macroscopic synchrony at a critical value of the coupling strength. Numerical simulations make possible further characterization of the synchronized arrays.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California-San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0340, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van den Broeck
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lindenberg