CAM colloquium - March 12 (Joint with IGERT Program in Nonlinear Systems)

Edward Ott
Lab of Plasma Studies
University of Maryland

"The Onset of Coherence in Globally Coupled Chaotic and Periodic Systems"

Coherent oscillations in systems of a very large number of coupled dynamical units are of great interest in diverse contexts. Examples include brain waves, heart beats, synchronized flashing of fire flies, chemical systems, Josephson junction arrays, etc. Previous work, beginning with that of Winfree and Kuramoto, on the onset of coherence in such systems has mostly been restricted to the case where the natural dynamics of the individual units is periodic. In this talk we first review the classic Kuramoto model of globally coupled limit cycle oscillators, and then present and numerically illustrate a new theory [E.Ott, P.So, E.Barreto, T.Antonsen, Physica D (2002)] that is capable of treating units that are chaotic as well as periodic.