Effects of variation of coupling offset α in electronic oscillator experiments

In biological systems that exhibit synchronization, oscillators within a single population vary in many aspects. To provide controlled experimental insight into how these variations affect synchronization, we have built an ensemble of highly configurable electronic oscillators. These oscillators have programmable speed, coupling strength, waveform shape, and coupling phase offset, known as α in the Sakaguchi-Kuramoto model. Moreover, each oscillator can have a distinct coupling offset. We have examined how α affects the degree of synchronization, and how variations in α within a population alter the stability of the synchronous state. We will also compare our findings with those presented in the literature.