Synchronization of harmonic oscillators under restorative coupling with applications in electrical networks

The role of restorative coupling on synchronization of coupled identical harmonic oscillators is studied. Necessary and sufficient conditions, under which the individual systems' solutions converge to a common trajectory, are presented. Through simple physical examples, the meaning and limitations of the theorems are expounded. Also, to demonstrate their versatility, the results are extended to cover LTI passive electrical networks. One of the extensions generalizes the well-known link between the asymptotic stability of the synchronization subspace and the second smallest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.