Dynamics and pattern formation in large systems of spatially-coupled oscillators with finite response times

We consider systems of many spatially distributed phase oscillators that with their neighbors. Each oscillator is allowed to have a different natural frequency, as well as a different response time to the signals it receives from other oscillators in its neighborhood. Using the ansatz of Ott and Antonsen [Chaos 18, 037113 (2008)] and adopting a strategy similar to that employed in the recent work of Laing [Physica D 238, 1569 (2009)], we reduce the microscopic dynamics of these systems to a macroscopic partial-differential-equation description. Using this macroscopic formulation, we numerically find that finite oscillator response time leads to interesting spatiotemporal dynamical behaviors including propagating fronts, spots, target patterns, chimerae, spiral waves, etc., and we study interactions and evolutionary behaviors of these spatiotemporal patterns. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3596697]