title: Stochastic switching in delay-coupled oscillators.
abstract: A delay is known to induce multistability in periodic systems. Under influence of noise, coupled oscillators can switch between coexistent orbits with different frequencies and different oscillation patterns. For coupled phase oscillators we reduce the delay system to a nondelayed Langevin equation, which allows us to analytically compute the distribution of frequencies and their corresponding residence times. The number of stable periodic orbits scales with the roundtrip delay time and coupling strength, but the noisy system visits only a fraction of the orbits, which scales with the square root of the delay time and is independent of the coupling strength. In contrast, the residence time in the different orbits is mainly determined by the coupling strength and the number of oscillators, and only weakly dependent on the coupling delay. Finally we investigate the effect of a detuning between the oscillators. We demonstrate the generality of our results with delay-coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Otti
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: D'Huys
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos, IFISC (CSIC-UIB), Campus Universitat de les Illes Balears, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jüngling
authors.affiliation: Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kinzel
mesh_terms: D005246:Feedback; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013997:Time Factors