Snaking bifurcations in a self-excited oscillator chain with cyclic symmetry

Snaking bifurcations in a chain of mechanical oscillators are studied. The individual oscillators are weakly nonlinear and subject to self-excitation and subcritical Hopf-bifurcations with some parameter ranges yielding bistability. When the oscillators are coupled to their neighbours, snaking bifurcations result, corresponding to localised vibration states. The snaking patterns do seem to be more complex than in previously studied continuous systems, comprising a plethora of isolated branches and also a large number of similar but not identical states, originating from the weak coupling of the phases of the individual oscillators.