Phase Ordering and Onset of Collective Behavior in Chaotic Coupled Map Lattices

The phase ordering properties of lattices of band-chaotic maps coupled diffusively with some coupling strength $g$ are studied in order to determine the limit value $g_e$ beyond which multistability disappears and non-trivial collective behavior is observed. The persistence of equivalent discrete spin variables and the characteristic length of the patterns observed scale algebraically with time during phase ordering. The associated exponents vary continuously with $g$ but remain proportional to each other, with a ratio close to that of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation. The corresponding individual values seem to be recovered in the space-continuous limit.