Order parameter expansion study of synchronous firing induced by quenched noise in the active rotator model

Abstract: We use a recently developed order parameter expansion method to study the transition to synchronous firing occuring in a system of coupled active rotators under the exclusive presence of quenched noise. The method predicts correctly the existence of a transition from a rest state to a regime of synchronous firing and another transition out of it as the intensity of the quenched noise increases and leads to analytical expressions for the critical noise intensities in the large coupling regime. It also predicts the order of the transitions for different probability distribution functions of the quenched variables. We use numerical simulations and finite size scaling theory to estimate the critical exponents of the transitions and found values which are consistent with those reported in other scalar systems in the exclusive presence of additive static disorder.