Stimulus-induced chaotic synchronization of Chua's oscillators

The problem of phase synchronization of Chua's chaotic oscillators is investigated. We consider Chua's circuit when it exhibits a chaotic attractor and apply a single pulse stimulus. It is shown that under certain conditions the system displays self-referential phase reset (SPR) phenomenon. This is a case when the reset phase of the chaotic oscillation is independent on the initial phase, hence on the time moment when the stimulus has been applied. In an ensemble of chaotic oscillators simultaneously stimulated, the SPR yields mutual phase coherence or synchronization between the units. We describe basic dynamical mechanisms of the effect and show how it can be used for controllable cluster formation and for the control of chaotic dynamics.