The study of the dynamics of the order parameter of coupled oscillators in the Ott–Antonsen scheme for generic frequency distributions

The Ott–Antonsen ansatz shows that, for certain classes of distribution of the natural frequencies in systems of $N$ globally coupled Kuramoto oscillators, the dynamics of the order parameter, in the limit $N→∞$⁠, evolves, under suitable initial conditions, in a manifold of low dimension. This is not possible when the frequency distribution, continued in the complex plane, has an essential singularity at infinity; this is the case, for example, of a Gaussian distribution. In this work, we propose a simple approximation scheme that allows one to extend also to this case the representation of the dynamics of the order parameter in a low dimensional manifold. Using the Gaussian frequency distribution as a working example, we compare the dynamical evolution of the order parameter of the system of oscillators, obtained by the numerical integration of the $N$ equations of motion, with the analogous dynamics in the low dimensional manifold obtained with the application of the approximation scheme. The results confirm the validity of the approximation. The method could be employed for general frequency distributions, allowing the determination of the corresponding phase diagram of the oscillator system.