Entrainment transition in populations of random frequency oscillators

The entrainment transition of coupled random frequency oscillators is revisited. The Kuramoto model (global coupling) is shown to exhibit unusual sample-dependent finite-size effects leading to a correlation size exponent ν̄=5/2. Simulations of locally coupled oscillators in d dimensions reveal two types of frequency entrainment: mean-field behavior at d>4 and aggregation of compact synchronized domains in three and four dimensions. In the latter case, scaling arguments yield a correlation length exponent ν=2/(d-2), in good agreement with numerical results.