Chaotic transition in a three-coupled phase-locked loop system

The chaotic transition is observed in a three-coupled phase-locked loop (PL L) system in both experiments and numerical simulations. In this system, th ree PLL oscillators are connected with the periodic boundary condition. Int ermittency is found in partially synchronized phase, in which two of three oscillators synchronize with each other and form a pair, and the chaotic tr ansition occurs due to the recombination of synchronized pairs so that diff erent pair is re-formed. In this phase, on-off intermittency is also observ ed and statistical analyses are carried out for on-off intermittent time se ries. This intermittency is considered as a hybrid type of intermittency wi th both on-off intermittency and intermittency due to the recombination of synchronized pairs present in the same time series. We also show the chaoti c transition phenomena in a three-coupled logistic map system. (C) 2001 Ame rican Institute of Physics.