Taming spatiotemporal chaos with disorder

Abstract

DISORDERand noise in physical systems usually tend to destroy spatial and temporal regularity, but recent research into nonlinear systems provides intriguing counterexamples. In the phenomenon of stochastic resonance¹, for example, the presence of noise improves the ability of some nonlinear systems to transfer information reliably. Noise can also remove chaos in a model oscillator², and facilitate synchronization in an extended array of bistable elements³. Here we explore the use of disorder as a means to control spatiotemporal chaos^4–8 in coupled arrays of forced, damped, nonlinear oscillators. Chaotic behaviour in spatially extended systems, especially in biology and physiology^9,10, might be amenable to control, as occurs in lowdimensional temporally chaotic systems^11,12. In our numerical experiments, one and twodimensional arrays of identical oscillators behave chaotically, but the introduction of slight, uncorrelated differences between the oscillators induces ordered motion characterized by complex but regular spatiotemporal patterns.