The smallest chimera state for coupled pendula

Chimera states in the systems of coupled identical oscillators are spatiotemporal patterns in which different groups of oscillators can exhibit coexisting synchronous and incoherent behaviors despite homogeneous coupling. Although these states are typically observed in large ensembles of oscillators, recently it has been suggested that chimera states may occur in the systems with small numbers of oscillators. Here, considering three coupled pendula showing chaotic behavior, we find the pattern of the smallest chimera state, which is characterized by the coexistence of two synchronized and one incoherent oscillator. We show that this chimera state can be observed in simple experiments with mechanical oscillators, which are controlled by elementary dynamical equations derived from Newton’s laws. Our finding suggests that chimera states are observable in small networks relevant to various real-world systems.