On-off intermittency in oscillatory media

On-off intermittency observed in three types of spatially extended dynamical systems is reported. This is done by examining the linear stability of spatially synchronized state under a spatially inhomogeneous fluctuation. When the system size slightly exceeds the critical size and a single inhomogeneous mode becomes unstable, systems exhibit typical on-off intermittency, whose statistical characteristics such as distribution of burst amplitude, Fourier spectrum and distribution of laminar duration turn out to be in agreement with those known in the on-off intermittency for small degrees of freedom system. Copyright (C)1998 Elsevier Science B.V.