Comparing the locking threshold for rings and chains of oscillators

We present a case study of how topology can affect synchronization. Specifically, we consider arrays of phase oscillators coupled in a ring or a chain topology. Each ring is perfectly matched to a chain with the same initial conditions and the same random natural frequencies. The only difference is their boundary conditions: periodic for a ring and open for a chain. For both topologies, stable phase-locked states exist if and only if the spread or "width" of the natural frequencies is smaller than a critical value called the locking threshold (which depends on the boundary conditions and the particular realization of the frequencies). The central question is whether a ring synchronizes more readily than a chain. We show that it usually does, but not always. Rigorous bounds are derived for the ratio between the locking thresholds of a ring and its matched chain, for a variant of the Kuramoto model that also includes a wider family of models.