Transient chimera-like states for forced oscillators.

Chimera states occur widely in networks of identical oscillators as has been shown in the recent extensive theoretical and experimental research. In such a state, different groups of oscillators can exhibit coexisting synchronous and incoherent behaviors despite homogeneous coupling. Here, we consider a star network, in which N identical peripheral end nodes are connected to the central hub node. We find that if a single node exhibits transient chaotic behavior in the whole network, the pattern of transient chimeralike state, which persists for a significant amount of time, is created. As a proof of the concept, we examine the system of N double pendula (peripheral end nodes) located on the periodically oscillating platform (central hub). We show that such transient chimeralike states can be observed in simple experiments with mechanical oscillators, which are controlled by elementary dynamical equations. Our finding suggests that transient chimeralike states are observable in networks relevant to various real-world systems.