Feedback-induced desynchronization and oscillation quenching in a population of globally coupled oscillators.

Abstract

Motivated from a wide range of applications, various methods to control synchronization in coupled oscillators have been proposed. Previous studies have demonstrated that global feedback typically induces three macroscopic behaviors: synchronization, desynchronization, and oscillation quenching. However, analyzing all of these transitions within a single theoretical framework is difficult, and thus the feedback effect is only partially understood in each framework. Herein, we analyze a model of globally coupled phase oscillators exposed to global feedback, which shows all of the typical macroscopic dynamical states. Analytical tractability of the model enables us to obtain detailed phase diagrams where transitions and bistabilities between different macroscopic states are identified. Additionally, we propose strategies to steer the oscillators into targeted states with minimal feedback strength. Our study provides a useful overview of the effect of global feedback and is expected to serve as a benchmark when more sophisticated feedback needs to be designed.