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Updated: Mar 12, 2026

Fabrication and Testing of Microfluidic Optomechanical Oscillators
Published on: May 29, 2014
Diversity of coupled oscillators can enhance their synchronization
Ghazal Montaseri1, Michael Meyer-Hermann1,2
1Department of Systems Immunology and Braunschweig Integrated Centre of Systems Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig 38124, Germany.
Abstract:
The heterogeneity of coupled oscillators is important for the degree of their synchronization. According to the classical Kuramoto model, larger heterogeneity reduces synchronization. Here, we show that in a model for coupled pancreatic β-cells, higher diversity of the cells induces higher synchrony. We find that any system of coupled oscillators that oscillates on two time scales and in which heterogeneity causes a transition from chaotic to damped oscillations on the fast time scale exhibits this property. Thus, synchronization of a subset of oscillating systems can be enhanced by increasing the heterogeneity of the system constituents.
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