Square waves and Bykov T-points in a delay algebraic model for the Kerr-Gires-Tournois interferometer.

We study theoretically the mechanisms of square wave formation of a vertically emitting micro-cavity operated in the Gires-Tournois regime that contains a Kerr medium and that is subjected to strong time-delayed optical feedback and detuned optical injection. We show that in the limit of large delay, square wave solutions of the time-delayed system can be treated as relative homoclinic solutions of an equation with an advanced argument. Based on this, we use concepts of classical homoclinic bifurcation theory to study different types of square wave solutions. In particular, we unveil the mechanisms behind the collapsed snaking scenario of square waves and explain the formation of complex-shaped multistable square wave solutions through a Bykov T-point. Finally, we relate the position of the T-point to the position of the Maxwell point in the original time-delayed system.

Auditory cortex modelled as a dynamical network of oscillators: understanding event-related fields and their adaptation.

Adaptation, the reduction of neuronal responses by repetitive stimulation, is a ubiquitous feature of auditory cortex (AC). It is not clear what causes adaptation, but short-term synaptic depression (STSD) is a potential candidate for the underlying mechanism. In such a case, adaptation can be directly linked with the way AC produces context-sensitive responses such as mismatch negativity and stimulus-specific adaptation observed on the single-unit level. We examined this hypothesis via a computational model based on AC anatomy, which includes serially connected core, belt, and parabelt areas. The model replicates the event-related field (ERF) of the magnetoencephalogram as well as ERF adaptation. The model dynamics are described by excitatory and inhibitory state variables of cell populations, with the excitatory connections modulated by STSD. We analysed the system dynamics by linearising the firing rates and solving the STSD equation using time-scale separation. This allows for characterisation of AC dynamics as a superposition of damped harmonic oscillators, so-called normal modes. We show that repetition suppression of the N1m is due to a mixture of causes, with stimulus repetition modifying both the amplitudes and the frequencies of the normal modes. In this view, adaptation results from a complete reorganisation of AC dynamics rather than a reduction of activity in discrete sources. Further, both the network structure and the balance between excitation and inhibition contribute significantly to the rate with which AC recovers from adaptation. This lifetime of adaptation is longer in the belt and parabelt than in the core area, despite the time constants of STSD being spatially homogeneous. Finally, we critically evaluate the use of a single exponential function to describe recovery from adaptation.

Dynamics of a stochastic excitable system with slowly adapting feedback.

We study an excitable active rotator with slowly adapting nonlinear feedback and noise. Depending on the adaptation and the noise level, this system may display noise-induced spiking, noise-perturbed oscillations, or stochastic bursting. We show how the system exhibits transitions between these dynamical regimes, as well as how one can enhance or suppress the coherence resonance or effectively control the features of the stochastic bursting. The setup can be considered a paradigmatic model for a neuron with a slow recovery variable or, more generally, as an excitable system under the influence of a nonlinear control mechanism. We employ a multiple timescale approach that combines the classical adiabatic elimination with averaging of rapid oscillations and stochastic averaging of noise-induced fluctuations by a corresponding stationary Fokker-Planck equation. This allows us to perform a numerical bifurcation analysis of a reduced slow system and to determine the parameter regions associated with different types of dynamics. In particular, we demonstrate the existence of a region of bistability, where the noise-induced switching between a stationary and an oscillatory regime gives rise to stochastic bursting.

Temporal Dissipative Solitons in Time-Delay Feedback Systems.

Localized states are a universal phenomenon observed in spatially distributed dissipative nonlinear systems. Known as dissipative solitons, autosolitons, and spot or pulse solutions, these states play an important role in data transmission using optical pulses, neural signal propagation, and other processes. While this phenomenon was thoroughly studied in spatially extended systems, temporally localized states are gaining attention only recently, driven primarily by applications from fiber or semiconductor lasers. Here we present a theory for temporal dissipative solitons (TDS) in systems with time-delayed feedback. In particular, we derive a system with an advanced argument, which determines the profile of the TDS. We also provide a complete classification of the spectrum of TDS into interface and pseudocontinuous spectrum. We illustrate our theory with two examples: a generic delayed phase oscillator, which is a reduced model for an injected laser with feedback, and the FitzHugh-Nagumo neuron with delayed feedback. Finally, we discuss possible destabilization mechanisms of TDS and show an example where the TDS delocalizes and its pseudocontinuous spectrum develops a modulational instability.

The link between coherence echoes and mode locking.

We investigate the appearance of sharp pulses in the mean field of Kuramoto-type globally-coupled phase oscillator systems. In systems with exactly equidistant natural frequencies, self-organized periodic pulsations of the mean field, called mode locking, have been described recently as a new collective dynamics below the synchronization threshold. We show here that mode locking can appear also for frequency combs with modes of finite width, where the natural frequencies are randomly chosen from equidistant frequency intervals. In contrast to that, so-called coherence echoes, which manifest themselves also as pulses in the mean field, have been found in systems with completely disordered natural frequencies as a result of two consecutive stimulations applied to the system. We show that such echo pulses can be explained by a stimulation induced mode locking of a subpopulation representing a frequency comb. Moreover, we find that the presence of a second harmonic in the interaction function, which can lead to the global stability of the mode-locking regime for equidistant natural frequencies, can enhance the echo phenomenon significantly. The nonmonotonic behavior of echo amplitudes can be explained as a result of the linear dispersion within the self-organized mode-locked frequency comb. Finally, we investigate the effect of small periodic stimulations on oscillator systems with disordered natural frequencies and show how the global coupling can support the stimulated pulsation by increasing the width of locking plateaus.

Phase-sensitive excitability of a limit cycle.

The classical notion of excitability refers to an equilibrium state that shows under the influence of perturbations a nonlinear threshold-like behavior. Here, we extend this concept by demonstrating how periodic orbits can exhibit a specific form of excitable behavior where the nonlinear threshold-like response appears only after perturbations applied within a certain part of the periodic orbit, i.e., the excitability happens to be phase-sensitive. As a paradigmatic example of this concept, we employ the classical FitzHugh-Nagumo system. The relaxation oscillations, appearing in the oscillatory regime of this system, turn out to exhibit a phase-sensitive nonlinear threshold-like response to perturbations, which can be explained by the nonlinear behavior in the vicinity of the canard trajectory. Triggering the phase-sensitive excitability of the relaxation oscillations by noise, we find a characteristic non-monotone dependence of the mean spiking rate of the relaxation oscillation on the noise level. We explain this non-monotone dependence as a result of an interplay of two competing effects of the increasing noise: the growing efficiency of the excitation and the degradation of the nonlinear response.

Introduction to Focus Issue: Time-delay dynamics.

The field of dynamical systems with time delay is an active research area that connects practically all scientific disciplines including mathematics, physics, engineering, biology, neuroscience, physiology, economics, and many others. This Focus Issue brings together contributions from both experimental and theoretical groups and emphasizes a large variety of applications. In particular, lasers and optoelectronic oscillators subject to time-delayed feedbacks have been explored by several authors for their specific dynamical output, but also because they are ideal test-beds for experimental studies of delay induced phenomena. Topics include the control of cavity solitons, as light spots in spatially extended systems, new devices for chaos communication or random number generation, higher order locking phenomena between delay and laser oscillation period, and systematic bifurcation studies of mode-locked laser systems. Moreover, two original theoretical approaches are explored for the so-called Low Frequency Fluctuations, a particular chaotical regime in laser output which has attracted a lot of interest for more than 30 years. Current hot problems such as the synchronization properties of networks of delay-coupled units, novel stabilization techniques, and the large delay limit of a delay differential equation are also addressed in this special issue. In addition, analytical and numerical tools for bifurcation problems with or without noise and two reviews on concrete questions are proposed. The first review deals with the rich dynamics of simple delay climate models for El Nino Southern Oscillations, and the second review concentrates on neuromorphic photonic circuits where optical elements are used to emulate spiking neurons. Finally, two interesting biological problems are considered in this Focus Issue, namely, multi-strain epidemic models and the interaction of glucose and insulin for more effective treatment.

Tweezers for Chimeras in Small Networks.

We propose a control scheme which can stabilize and fix the position of chimera states in small networks. Chimeras consist of coexisting domains of spatially coherent and incoherent dynamics in systems of nonlocally coupled identical oscillators. Chimera states are generally difficult to observe in small networks due to their short lifetime and erratic drifting of the spatial position of the incoherent domain. The control scheme, like a tweezer, might be useful in experiments, where usually only small networks can be realized.

Is there an impact of small phase lags in the Kuramoto model?

We discuss the influence of small phase lags on the synchronization transitions in the Kuramoto model for a large inhomogeneous population of globally coupled phase oscillators. Without a phase lag, all unimodal distributions of the natural frequencies give rise to a classical synchronization scenario, where above the onset of synchrony at the Kuramoto threshold, there is an increasing synchrony for increasing coupling strength. We show that already for arbitrarily small phase lags, there are certain unimodal distributions of natural frequencies such that for increasing coupling strength synchrony may decrease and even complete incoherence may regain stability. Moreover, our example allows a qualitative understanding of the mechanism for such non-universal synchronization transitions.

Regular and irregular patterns of self-localized excitation in arrays of coupled phase oscillators.

We study a system of phase oscillators with nonlocal coupling in a ring that supports self-organized patterns of coherence and incoherence, called chimera states. Introducing a global feedback loop, connecting the phase lag to the order parameter, we can observe chimera states also for systems with a small number of oscillators. Numerical simulations show a huge variety of regular and irregular patterns composed of localized phase slipping events of single oscillators. Using methods of classical finite dimensional chaos and bifurcation theory, we can identify the emergence of chaotic chimera states as a result of transitions to chaos via period doubling cascades, torus breakup, and intermittency. We can explain the observed phenomena by a mechanism of self-modulated excitability in a discrete excitable medium.

Controlling unstable chaos: stabilizing chimera states by feedback.

We present a control scheme that is able to find and stabilize an unstable chaotic regime in a system with a large number of interacting particles. This allows us to track a high dimensional chaotic attractor through a bifurcation where it loses its attractivity. Similar to classical delayed feedback control, the scheme is noninvasive, however only in an appropriately relaxed sense considering the chaotic regime as a statistical equilibrium displaying random fluctuations as a finite size effect. We demonstrate the control scheme for so-called chimera states, which are coherence-incoherence patterns in coupled oscillator systems. The control makes chimera states observable close to coherence, for small numbers of oscillators, and for random initial conditions.

Partially coherent twisted states in arrays of coupled phase oscillators.

We consider a one-dimensional array of phase oscillators with non-local coupling and a Lorentzian distribution of natural frequencies. The primary objects of interest are partially coherent states that are uniformly "twisted" in space. To analyze these, we take the continuum limit, perform an Ott/Antonsen reduction, integrate over the natural frequencies, and study the resulting spatio-temporal system on an unbounded domain. We show that these twisted states and their stability can be calculated explicitly. We find that stable twisted states with different wave numbers appear for increasing coupling strength in the well-known Eckhaus scenario. Simulations of finite arrays of oscillators show good agreement with results of the analysis of the infinite system.

Nonuniversal transitions to synchrony in the Sakaguchi-Kuramoto model.

We investigate the transition to synchrony in a system of phase oscillators that are globally coupled with a phase lag (Sakaguchi-Kuramoto model). We show that for certain unimodal frequency distributions there appear unusual types of synchronization transitions, where synchrony can decay with increasing coupling, incoherence can regain stability for increasing coupling, or multistability between partially synchronized states and/or the incoherent state can appear. Our method is a bifurcation analysis based on a frequency dependent version of the Ott-Antonsen method and allows for a universal description of possible synchronization transition scenarios for any given distribution of natural frequencies.

Solitary routes to chimera states.

We show how solitary states in a system of globally coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators can lead to the emergence of chimera states. By a numerical bifurcation analysis of a suitable reduced system in the thermodynamic limit we demonstrate how solitary states, after emerging from the synchronous state, become chaotic in a period-doubling cascade. Subsequently, states with a single chaotic oscillator give rise to states with an increasing number of incoherent chaotic oscillators. In large systems, these chimera states show extensive chaos. We demonstrate the coexistence of many of such chaotic attractors with different Lyapunov dimensions, due to different numbers of incoherent oscillators.

Bumps, chimera states, and Turing patterns in systems of coupled active rotators.

Self-organized coherence-incoherence patterns, called chimera states, have first been reported in systems of Kuramoto oscillators. For coupled excitable units, similar patterns where coherent units are at rest are called bump states. Here, we study bumps in an array of active rotators coupled by nonlocal attraction and global repulsion. We demonstrate how they can emerge in a supercritical scenario from completely coherent Turing patterns: a single incoherent unit appears in a homoclinic bifurcation, undergoing subsequent transitions to quasiperiodic and chaotic behavior, which eventually transforms into extensive chaos with many incoherent units. We present different types of transitions and explain the formation of coherence-incoherence patterns according to the classical paradigm of short-range activation and long-range inhibition.

Leap-frog patterns in systems of two coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo units.

We study a system of two identical FitzHugh-Nagumo units with a mutual linear coupling in the fast variables. While an attractive coupling always leads to synchronous behavior, a repulsive coupling can give rise to dynamical regimes with alternating spiking order, called leap-frogging. We analyze various types of periodic and chaotic leap-frogging regimes, using numerical path-following methods to investigate their emergence and stability, as well as to obtain the complex bifurcation scenario which organizes their appearance in parameter space. In particular, we show that the stability region of the simplest periodic leap-frog pattern has the shape of a locking cone pointing to the canard transition of the uncoupled system. We also discuss the role of the timescale separation in the coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo system and the relation of the leap-frog solutions to the theory of mixed-mode oscillations in multiple timescale systems.

Destabilization patterns in chains of coupled oscillators.

We describe the mechanism of destabilization in a chain of identical coupled oscillators. Along with the transition from stationary to oscillatory behavior of the single oscillator, the network undergoes a complicated bifurcation scenario including the coexistence of multiple periodic orbits with different frequencies, spatial patterns, and modulation instabilities. This scenario, which is similar to the well-known Eckhaus scenario in spatially extended systems, occurs here also in the case of purely convective unidirectional coupling, and hence it cannot be explained as a simple discretization of its spatially continuous counterpart. Although the number of coexisting periodic orbits grows with the number of oscillators, we are able to treat this problem independently of the actual size of the network by investigating the limiting equations for the related spectral problems.

Mode locking in systems of globally coupled phase oscillators.

We investigate the dynamics of a Kuramoto-type system of globally coupled phase oscillators with equidistant natural frequencies and a coupling strength below the synchronization threshold. It turns out that in such cases one can observe a stable regime of sharp pulses in the mean field amplitude with a pulsation frequency given by spacing of the natural frequencies. This resembles a process known as mode locking in lasers and relies on the emergence of a phase relation induced by the nonlinear coupling. We discuss the role of the first and second harmonics in the phase-interaction function for the stability of the pulsations and present various bifurcating dynamical regimes such as periodically and chaotically modulated mode locking, transitions to phase turbulence, and intermittency. Moreover, we study the role of the system size and show that in certain cases one can observe type II supertransients, where the system reaches the globally stable mode-locking solution only after an exponentially long transient of phase turbulence.

Embedding the dynamics of a single delay system into a feed-forward ring.

We investigate the relation between the dynamics of a single oscillator with delayed self-feedback and a feed-forward ring of such oscillators, where each unit is coupled to its next neighbor in the same way as in the self-feedback case. We show that periodic solutions of the delayed oscillator give rise to families of rotating waves with different wave numbers in the corresponding ring. In particular, if for the single oscillator the periodic solution is resonant to the delay, it can be embedded into a ring with instantaneous couplings. We discover several cases where the stability of a periodic solution for the single unit can be related to the stability of the corresponding rotating wave in the ring. As a specific example, we demonstrate how the complex bifurcation scenario of simultaneously emerging multijittering solutions can be transferred from a single oscillator with delayed pulse feedback to multijittering rotating waves in a sufficiently large ring of oscillators with instantaneous pulse coupling. Finally, we present an experimental realization of this dynamical phenomenon in a system of coupled electronic circuits of FitzHugh-Nagumo type.

Control of unstable steady states by long delay feedback.

We present an asymptotic analysis of time-delayed feedback control of steady states for large delay time. By scaling arguments, and a detailed comparison with exact solutions, we establish the parameter ranges for successful stabilization of an unstable fixed point of focus type. Insight into the control mechanism is gained by analyzing the eigenvalue spectrum, which consists of a pseudocontinuous spectrum and up to two strongly unstable eigenvalues. Although the standard control scheme generally fails for large delay, we find that if the uncontrolled system is sufficiently close to its instability threshold, control does work even for relatively large delay times.