A Coupled Oscillator Model for the Origin of Bimodality and Multimodality
arXiv:1905.05230 · doi:10.1063/1.5100289
Abstract
Perhaps because of the elegance of the central limit theorem, it is often assumed that distributions in nature will approach singly-peaked, unimodal shapes reminiscent of the Gaussian normal distribution. However, many systems behave differently, with variables following apparently bimodal or multimodal distributions. Here we argue that multimodality may emerge naturally as a result of repulsive or inhibitory coupling dynamics, and we show rigorously how it emerges for a broad class of coupling functions in variants of the paradigmatic Kuramoto model.
11 pages, 12 figures