Chimera states in purely local delay-coupled oscillators

We study the existence of chimera states in a network of locally coupled chaotic and limit-cycle oscillators. The necessary condition for chimera state in purely local coupled oscillators is discussed. At first, we numerically observe the existence of chimera or multichimera states in the locally coupled Hindmarsh-Rose neuron model. We find that delay time in the nonlinear local coupling reduces the domain of the coherent island in the parameter space of the synaptic coupling strength and time delay, and thus the coherent region can be completely eliminated once the time delay exceeds a certain threshold. We then consider another form of nonlinearity in the local coupling, and the existence of chimera states is observed in the time-delayed Mackey-Glass system and in a Van der Pol oscillator. We also discuss the effect of time delay in local coupling for the existence of chimera states in Mackey-Glass systems. The nonlinearity present in the coupling function plays a key role in the emergence of chimera or multichimera states. A phase diagram for the chimera state is identified over a wide parameter space.