Intermittent and partial synchrony of coupled augmented Rössler oscillators

Abstract

Inspired by the augmented Lorenz equations, we have designed a star network of Rössler oscillators, referred to as augmented Rössler equations, in which each Rössler oscillator is coupled with the other oscillators via a single variable y as the central node of the whole network. We investigate the dynamical nature of the augmented Rössler equations in terms of the bifurcation diagram of a single augmented Rössler oscillator and the chaotic synchronizability of coupled augmented Rössler oscillators, and show that intermittent synchronization between identical augmented Rössler oscillators as well as partial synchronization between nonidentical ones can be achieved via direct coupling of the central nodes. We also show that nonidentical augmented Rössler oscillators coupled via intermittent mutual diffusive coupling exhibit partial synchrony, despite the intermittency of the diffusive coupling. We discuss possible application of such synchronous behavior in terms of chaos-based secret key distribution.