Intermittent Loss of Synchronization in Coupled Chaotic Oscillators: Toward a New Criterion for High-Quality Synchronization.

We observe incomplete synchronization of coupled chaotic oscillators over a wide range of coupling strengths and coupling schemes for which high-quality synchronization is expected. Long intervals of high-quality synchronization are interrupted at irregular times by large, brief desynchronization events that can be attributed to “attractor bubbling,” clearly demonstrating that the standard synchronization criterion is not always useful in experiments. We suggest a simple method for rapidly selecting the coupling schemes that are most likely to produce high-quality synchronization. [S0031-9007(96)01028-9]