Global and Partial Phase Synchronizations in Arrays of Piecewise Linear   Time-Delay Systems
  In this paper, we report the identification of global and partial phase synchronizations in linear arrays of unidirectionally coupled piecewise linear time-delay systems with two different coupling configurations. In particular, in a linear array with open end boundary conditions, global phase synchronization (GPS) is achieved by a sequential synchronization as a function of the coupling strength (a second order transition). Further, the asynchronous ones in the array with respect to the main sequentially synchronized cluster organize themselves to form clusters before they achieve synchronization with the main cluster. On the other hand, in a linear array with closed end boundary conditions (ring topology), partial phase synchronization (PPS) is achieved by forming different groups of phase synchronized clusters above some threshold value of the coupling strength (a first order transition) where they continue to be in a stable PPS state. We confirm the occurrence of both global and partial phase synchronizations in two different piecewise linear time-delay systems using various numerical methods. 
R. Suresh, D. V. Senthilkumar, M. Lakshmanan and J. Kurths
nlin.CD