Explosive transitions in interacting star networks

Abstract

We study transition to phase synchronization in an ensemble of Stuart-Landau oscillators interacting on a star network. We observe that by introducing frequency weighted coupling and time scale variations in the dynamics of nodes, system exhibits a first order explosive transition to phase synchrony. Further, we extend this study to understand the nature of synchronization in case of two coupled star networks. In presence of symmetry preserving (direct) coupling between the hubs of the two stars, we observe that hysteresis width first increases and then saturates for increasing inter-star coupling strength. For symmetry breaking (conjugate) coupling, the hysteresis width first increases and then decreases with increasing inter-star coupling. As we increase the inter-star coupling further, the transition gradually becomes a second order.