Coherent-ordered transition in chaotic globally coupled maps

A spatial coherent and temporally chaotic state in globally coupled maps exists in the strong coupling regime. After the coherence loses stability the whole system is attracted to a two-cluster attractor [${\mathit{M}}_1$,${\mathit{M}}_2$]. The number of elements in the clusters depends on the initial conditions, which are chosen at random. We find, numerically, that the number of elements in the clusters obeys a power law decay near the onset of the transition. The difference of the two clusters displays a temporal behavior characteristic of on-off intermittency, although the distribution of the laminar phases shows a phase transition as a function of its length, making it essentially different from the latter. © 1996 The American Physical Society.