Onset and loss of synchronization in coupled oscillators are of fundamental importance in understanding emergent behavior in natural and man-made systems, which range from neural networks to power grids. We report on experiments with hundreds of strongly coupled photochemical relaxation oscillators that exhibit a discontinuous synchronization transition with hysteresis, as opposed to the paradigmatic continuous transition expected from the widely used weak coupling theory. The resulting first-order transition is robust with respect to changes in network connectivity and natural frequency distribution. This allows us to identify the relaxation character of the oscillators as the essential parameter that determines the nature of the synchronization transition. We further support this hypothesis by revealing the mechanism of the transition, which cannot be accounted for by standard phase reduction techniques.

在理解自然和人为系统（从神经网络到电网）中出现的行为时，耦合振荡器中的同步的发生和丢失至关重要。我们报告了数百个强耦合光化学弛豫振荡器的实验结果，这些振荡器表现出具有磁滞现象的不连续同步转变，这与广泛使用的弱耦合理论所预期的范式连续转变相反。相对于网络连接和自然频率分布的变化，最终的一阶跃迁是鲁棒的。这使我们能够将振荡器的弛豫特性识别为确定同步过渡性质的基本参数。我们通过揭示过渡机制进一步支持这一假设，