Numerical and experimental study of external synchronization of two-frequency oscillations

The effect of synchonization has been studied in a system of two coupled Van der Pol oscillators under external harmonic force. The bifurcation analysis has been carried out using the phase approach. The mechanisms of complete and partial synchronization have been established. The main type of bifurcation described in the paper is the saddle-node bifurcation of invariant curves that corresponds to the saddle-node bifurcation of two-dimensional tori in the complete system of differential equations for the dynamical system under study. We illustrate the bifurcational mechanisms obtained from numerical experiment by the results of physical experiment. The synchronization phenomenon in the vicinity of resonances on a torus with winding numbers 1 : 1 and 1 : 3 is considered in the physical experiment.