High-order phase reduction for coupled oscillators

Abstract

We explore the phase reduction in networks of coupled oscillators in the higher orders of the coupling parameter. For coupled Stuart–Landau oscillators, where the phase can be introduced explicitly, we develop an analytic perturbation procedure to explicitly obtain the higher-order approximation. We demonstrate this by deriving the second-order phase equations for a network of three Stuart–Landau oscillators. For systems where explicit expressions of the phase are not available, we present a numerical procedure that constructs the phase dynamics equations for a small network of coupled units. We apply this approach to a network of three van der Pol oscillators and reveal components in the coupling with different scaling in the interaction strength.