Interpolating between bumps and chimeras.

ABSTRACT

A "bump" refers to a group of active neurons surrounded by quiescent ones while a "chimera" refers to a pattern in a network in which some oscillators are synchronized while the remainder are asynchronous. Both types of patterns have been studied intensively but are sometimes conflated due to their similar appearance and existence in similar types of networks. Here, we numerically study a hybrid system that linearly interpolates between a network of theta neurons that supports a bump at one extreme and a network of phase oscillators that supports a chimera at the other extreme. Using the Ott/Antonsen ansatz, we derive the equation describing the hybrid network in the limit of an infinite number of oscillators and perform bifurcation analysis on this equation. We find that neither the bump nor chimera persists over the whole range of parameters, and the hybrid system shows a variety of other states such as spatiotemporal chaos, traveling waves, and modulated traveling waves.