Synchronized states in dissipatively coupled harmonic oscillator networks

Abstract

The question under which conditions oscillators with slightly different frequencies synchronize appears in various settings. We show that synchronization can be achieved even for harmonic oscillators that are bilinearly coupled via a purely dissipative interaction. By appropriately tuned gain/loss stable dynamics may be achieved where for the cases studied in this work all oscillators are synchronized. These findings are interpreted using the complex eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the non-Hermitian matrix describing the dynamics of the system.