The Kuramoto model in presence of additional interactions that break rotational symmetry

Abstract: The Kuramoto model serves as a paradigm to study the phenomenon of spontaneous collective synchronization. We study here a nontrivial generalization of the Kuramoto model by including an interaction that breaks explicitly the rotational symmetry of the model. In an inertial frame (e.g., the laboratory frame), the Kuramoto model does not allow for a stationary state, that is, a state with time-independent value of the so-called Kuramoto (complex) synchronization order parameter $z\equiv re^{i\psi}$; Note that a time-independent $z$ implies $r$ and $\psi$ both time independent, with the latter fact corresponding to a state in which $\psi$ rotates at zero frequency (no rotation). In this backdrop, we ask: Does the introduction of the symmetry-breaking term suffice to allow for the existence of a stationary state in the laboratory frame? Compared to the original model, we reveal a rather rich phase diagram of the resulting model, with the existence of both stationary and standing wave phases. While in the former the synchronization order parameter $r$ has a long-time value that is time independent, one has in the latter an oscillatory behavior of the order parameter as a function of time that nevertheless yields a non-zero and time-independent time average. Our results are based on numerical integration of the dynamical equations as well as an exact analysis of the dynamics by invoking the so-called Ott-Antonsen ansatz that allows to derive a reduced set of time-evolution equations for the order parameter.