Resonance clustering in globally coupled electrochemical oscillators with external forcing

Experiments are carried out with a globally coupled, externally forced population of limit-cycle electrochemical oscillators with an approximately unimodal distribution of heterogeneities. Global coupling induces mutually entrained (at frequency omega(1)) states; periodic forcing produces forced-entrained (omega(F)) states. As a result of the interaction of mutual and forced entrainment, resonant cluster states occur with equal spacing of frequencies that have discretized frequencies following a resonance rule omega(n)congruent to n omega(1)-(n-1)omega(F). Resonance clustering requires an optimal, intermediate global coupling strength; at weak coupling the clusters have smaller sizes and do not strictly follow the resonance rule, while at strong coupling the population behaves similar to a single, giant oscillator.