The word 'synchronization' is part of our cultural lexicon - we 'sync up' with other people, 'sync our computers' and 'get in sync'.
There's a reason it resonates (we'll come back to our use of that word later) with us - synchronous behavior underlies many natural systems, events and phenomena.
Understanding conditions that cause oscillators, electronic components that produce a repetitive electronic signal, to get in sync or fall out of sync, is necessary to achieve the optimal functioning of oscillator networks that underlie many technologies. The transition from synchronization to de-synchronization is the subject of a new investigation by a team of Japanese scientists.
"On one hand, synchronization is necessary for communication and information processing. On the other hand, synchronization can blow violently out of proportion and enslave everything it is in contact with," explains Ralf Toenjes of Ochanomizu University.
He and his colleagues show that adding only a few links to a network can have such a strong effect that even this modest addition can mark the difference between random noise and coherent synchronization. They devised a method of control that enables them to balance the system at states that are actually unstable and usually not observed.
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The word 'synchronization' is part of our cultural lexicon - we 'sync up' with other people, 'sync our computers' and 'get in sync'.
There's a reason it resonates (we'll come back to our use of that word later) with us - synchronous behavior underlies many natural systems, events and phenomena.
Understanding conditions that cause oscillators, electronic components that produce a repetitive electronic signal, to get in sync or fall out of sync, is necessary to achieve the optimal functioning of oscillator networks that underlie many technologies. The transition from synchronization to de-synchronization is the subject of a new investigation by a team of Japanese scientists.
"On one hand, synchronization is necessary for communication and information processing. On the other hand, synchronization can blow violently out of proportion and enslave everything it is in contact with," explains Ralf Toenjes of Ochanomizu University.
He and his colleagues show that adding only a few links to a network can have such a strong effect that even this modest addition can mark the difference between random noise and coherent synchronization. They devised a method of control that enables them to balance the system at states that are actually unstable and usually not observed.
