Emergence of chimeras: An impetus by exceptional points

A nonconservative system with nonreciprocal interaction has been found to reveal exotic features where sudden phase transitions can occur. In this paper, the emanation of a chimera in a network of Stuart-Landau oscillators with nonreciprocal interaction is reported. Note that the spins follow the random discrete distribution. In other words, we pick a random oscillator to rotate clockwise or anticlockwise. At the transition points, we find the spectral singularities in the eigenplane, where eigenvalues coalesce, commonly known as exceptional points. We find that the counterrotational symmetry breaking induced by exceptional points antecedents the occurrence of the chimera. We numerically attest to the findings for two cases of initial conditions, namely, bipartite and random. We also extend our study to a two-dimensional array of nonreciprocally interacting, distributed spins. The findings could have pragmatic implications in the areas of active matter, networks, and photonics.