We study the effect of common noise on coupled active rotators. While such a noise always facilitates synchrony, coupling may be attractive/synchronizing or repulsive/desynchronizing. We develop an analytical approach based on a transformation to approximate angle-action variables and averaging over fast rotations. For identical rotators, we describe a transition from full to partial synchrony at a critical value of repulsive coupling. For nonidentical rotators, the most nontrivial effect occurs at moderate repulsive coupling, where a juxtaposition of phase locking with frequency repulsion (anti-entrainment) is observed. We show that the frequency repulsion obeys a nontrivial power law.

The cumulant representation is common in classical statistical physics for variables on the real line and the issue of closures of cumulant expansions is well elaborated. The case of phase variables significantly differs from the case of linear ones; the relevant order parameters are the Kuramoto-Daido ones but not the conventional moments. One can formally introduce 'circular' cumulants for Kuramoto-Daido order parameters, similar to the conventional cumulants for moments. The circular cumulant expansions allow to advance beyond the Ott-Antonsen theory and consider populations of real oscillators. First, we show that truncation of circular cumulant expansions, except for the Ott-Antonsen case, is forbidden. Second, we compare this situation to the case of the Gaussian distribution of a linear variable, where the second cumulant is nonzero and all the higher cumulants are zero, and elucidate why keeping up to the second cumulant is admissible for a linear variable, but forbidden for circular cumulants. Third, we discuss the implication of this truncation issue to populations of quadratic integrate-and-fire neurons [E. Montbrió, D. Pazó, A. Roxin, Phys. Rev. X 5, 021028 (2015)], where within the framework of macroscopic description, the firing rate diverges for any finite truncation of the cumulant series, and discuss how one should handle these situations. Fourth, we consider the cumulant-based low-dimensional reductions for macroscopic population dynamics in the context of this truncation issue. These reductions are applicable, where the cumulant series exponentially decay with the cumulant order, i.e., they form a geometric progression hierarchy. Fifth, we demonstrate the formation of this hierarchy for generic distributions on the circle and experimental data for coupled biological and electrochemical oscillators. Our main conclusion for applications is that, if the first and second circular cumulants are nonzero, there must be infinitely many nonzero higher cumulants. However, these higher cumulants can be small, in which case one can construct approximate equations for the dynamics of a finite number of leading cumulants.

We construct an analytical theory of interplay between synchronizing effects by common noise and by global coupling for a general class of smooth limit-cycle oscillators. Both the cases of attractive and repulsive coupling are considered. The derivation is performed within the framework of the phase reduction, which fully accounts for the amplitude degrees of freedom. Firstly, we consider the case of identical oscillators subject to intrinsic noise, obtain the synchronization condition, and find that the distribution of phase deviations always possesses lower-law heavy tails. Secondly, we consider the case of nonidentical oscillators. For the average oscillator frequency as a function of the natural frequency mismatch, limiting scaling laws are derived; these laws exhibit the nontrivial phenomenon of frequency repulsion accompanying synchronization under negative coupling. The analytical theory is illustrated with examples of Van der Pol and Van der Pol-Duffing oscillators and the neuron-like FitzHugh-Nagumo system; the results are also underpinned by the direct numerical simulation for ensembles of these oscillators.

We demonstrate the application of the circular cumulant approach for thermodynamically large populations of phase elements, where the Ott-Antonsen properties are violated by a multiplicative intrinsic noise. The infinite cumulant equation chain is derived for the case of a sinusoidal sensitivity of the phase to noise. Two-cumulant model reductions, which serve as a generalization of the Ott-Antonsen ansatz, are reported. The accuracy of these model reductions and the macroscopic collective dynamics of the system are explored for the case of a Kuramoto-type global coupling. The Ott-Antonsen ansatz and the Gaussian approximation are found to be not uniformly accurate for non-high frequencies.