Geometry- and topology-controlled synchronization phase transition on manifolds

Abstract

In this work, we explore how the geometry and topology of the underlying manifold shape the synchronization phase transition of a system. To do so, we extend the Kuramoto-Sakaguchi model from spheres to compact, connected, orientable, and homogeneous Riemannian manifolds of arbitrary dimension. Starting from the mean-field kinetic equation on the manifold, we derive a local response equation for the order parameter near the incoherent state and separate the geometric and topological contributions to the phase transition out of the incoherent state. The manifold geometry determines the averaged projection factor $\kappa\left(M\right)$, which directly controls the coupling strength required to destabilize the incoherent state. The critical coupling is determined jointly by this geometric factor and the response of the intrinsic drift fields. The manifold topology affects the phase transition through the Euler characteristic $\chi\left(M\right)$: the Poincar\'e-Hopf relation fixes the net defect charge of the incipient ordered texture, and the local reduction and sign conditions stated below allow the same Euler-characteristic data to constrain the cubic coefficient of the reduced response equation. In that conditional class, a non-zero Euler characteristic gives the cubic sign used in the reduced normal form, and an additional stabilization condition gives a discontinuous local transition. When $\chi\left(M\right)=0$, the local branch is determined by the normal-form coefficients rather than by the Euler characteristic alone. We evaluate these geometric and topological indicators on representative families. Our framework recovers the topological part of the classical hyperspherical parity distinction and extends it to a broad class of non-spherical state spaces.