To synchronize or not to synchronize, that is the question: finite-size scaling and fluctuation effects in the Kuramoto model

The entrainment transition of coupled random frequency oscillators presents a long-standing problem in nonlinear physics. The onset of entrainment in populations of large but finite size exhibits strong sensitivity to fluctuations in the oscillator density at the synchronizing frequency. This is the source for the unusual values assumed by the correlation size exponent V'. Locally coupled oscillators on a d-dimensional lattice exhibit two types of frequency entrainment in the thermodynamic limit: symmetry-breaking at d > 4 and aggregation of compact synchronized domains in three and four dimensions. Various critical properties of the transition are well captured by finite-size scaling relations with simple yet unconventional exponent values.