Understanding synchronization induced by "common noise"

Noise-induced synchronization refers to the phenomenon where two uncoupled, independent nonlinear oscillators can achieve synchronization through a "common" noisy forcing. Here, "common" means identical. However, "common noise" is a construct which does not exist in practice. Noise by nature is unique and two noise signals cannot be exactly the same. How to justify and understand this central concept in noise-induced synchronization? What is the relation between noise-induced synchronization and the usual chaotic synchronization? Here we argue and demonstrate that noise-induced synchronization is closely related to generalized synchronization as characterized by the emergence of a functional relation between distinct dynamical systems through mutual interaction. We show that the same mechanism applies to the phenomenon of noise-induced (or chaos-induced) phase synchronization. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.