Phase coherence is not related to topology.

Abstract

Phase coherence is an important measure in nonlinear science. Whereas there is no generally accepted definition for phase and therefore for phase coherence, many works associate this feature with topological aspects of the systems, such as having a well-defined rotating center. Given the relevance of this concept for synchronization problems, one aim of this paper is to argue by means of a couple of counterexamples that phase coherence is not related to the topology of the attractor. A second aim is to introduce a phase-coherence measure based on recurrence plots, for which probabilities of recurrences for two different trajectories are similar for a phase-coherent system and dissimilar for non-phase-coherent systems. The measure does not require a phase variable defined a priori.