CHAOTIC SYNCHRONIZATION OF A ONE-DIMENSIONAL ARRAY OF NONLINEAR ACTIVE SYSTEMS

Linear stability analysis is used to study the synchronization of N coupled chaotic dynamical systems. It is found that the role of the coupling is always to stabilize the system, and then synchronize it. Computer simulations and experimental results of an array of Chua's circuits are carried out. Arrays of identical and slightly different oscillators are considered. In the first case, the oscillators synchronize and sync-phase, i.e., each one repeats exactly the same behavior as the rest of them. When the oscillators are not identical, they can also synchronize but not in phase with each other. The last situation is shown to form structures in the phase space of the dynamical variables. Due to the inevitable component tolerances (+/-5%), our experiments have so far confirmed our theoretical predictions only for an array of slightly different oscillators.