What is it about?
Coupled oscillators can serve as a testbed for larger questions of pattern formation across many areas of science and engineering. In this paper, we prove the existence and stability of a new type of symmetry-breaking state called the "phase chimera state," in a system of identical, globally coupled oscillators. We show that this state can also take the form of a “multitailed phase chimera state” where a single phase-synchronous cluster of oscillators coexists with multiple groups of phase-incoherent oscillators.
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Why is it important?
The findings presented in this study demonstrate the existence and stability of a new class of chimera states: the "phase chimera" and its cousin, the "multitailed phase chimera." These states, discovered in a system of identical, globally coupled oscillators, have the characteristic of being frozen in a co-rotating frame. This discovery opens pathways for subsequent research to address immediate questions raised: what are the origins of the phase chimera? what other states are yet to be discovered in this system of globally coupled identical oscillators? and, of course, do states such as this emerge in naturally occurring systems?
Perspectives
The story of this discovery started as many others do - by accident. While performing numerical simulations to investigate another question in this system, we came across a state that looked surprising at first and which we later dubbed the "phase chimera state." Proving the existence and stability of this state was its own journey, with detours including the onsite consultation at the Sorbonne library in Paris, France of a 1997 PhD thesis which was not digitized, and 2022 Academic Twitter conversations around digital artwork derived from the system.
Emma Zajdela
Princeton University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Phase chimera states: Frozen patterns of disorder, Chaos An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, August 2025, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0275286.
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