title: Controlling chimera states: The influence of excitable units.
abstract: We explore the influence of a block of excitable units on the existence and behavior of chimera states in a nonlocally coupled ring-network of FitzHugh-Nagumo elements. The FitzHugh-Nagumo system, a paradigmatic model in many fields from neuroscience to chemical pattern formation and nonlinear electronics, exhibits oscillatory or excitable behavior depending on the values of its parameters. Until now, chimera states have been studied in networks of coupled oscillatory FitzHugh-Nagumo elements. In the present work, we find that introducing a block of excitable units into the network may lead to several interesting effects. It allows for controlling the position of a chimera state as well as for generating a chimera state directly from the synchronous state.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Isele
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos," 15310 Athens, Greece.|Crete Center for Quantum Complexity and Nanotechnology, Department of Physics, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece.
authors.forename: Johanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hizanidis
authors.affiliation: Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos," 15310 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Astero
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Provata
authors.affiliation: Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany.|Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Philippstr. 13, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hövel