Frequency dependence of phase-synchronization time in nonlinear dynamical systems

It has been found recently that the averaged phase-synchronization time between the input and the output signals of a nonlinear dynamical system can exhibit an extremely high sensitivity to variations in the noise level. In real-world signal-processing applications, sensitivity to frequency variations may be of considerable interest. Here we investigate the dependence of the averaged phase-synchronization time on frequency of the input signal. Our finding is that, for typical nonlinear oscillator systems, there can be a frequency regime where the time exhibits significant sensitivity to frequency variations. We obtain an analytic formula to quantify the frequency dependence, provide numerical support, and present experimental evidence from a simple nonlinear circuit system. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.