Spiral and target wave chimeras in a 2D network of nonlocally coupled van der Pol oscillators

Abstract

Abstract We study numerically autowave structures in a two-dimensional lattice of van der Pol oscillators for the cases of local and nonlocal coupling between the individual oscillators. It is shown that classical spiral wave and target wave regimes are observed in the network. When the nonlocal coupling between the elements is introduced, complex spatio-temporal structures, including chimera states, can be realized. We reveal and describe single- and multi-core spiral wave chimeras (SWC), as well as a novel type of chimera state which is based on target waves and called a target wave chimera (TWC). We investigate and compare the features of SWC and TWC incoherent cores. Finally, we study how the system dynamics changes when the coupling parameters are varied and discuss the impact of external noise on the observed wave structures.