%0 Journal Article %T Phase-Induced (In)-Stability in Coupled Parametric Oscillators %A Mauro Copelli %A Katja Lindenberg %J Physics %D 2000 %I arXiv %R 10.1103/PhysRevE.63.036605 %X We report results on a model of two coupled oscillators that undergo periodic parametric modulations with a phase difference $\theta$. Being to a large extent analytically solvable, the model reveals a rich $\theta$ dependence of the regions of parametric resonance. In particular, the intuitive notion that anti-phase modulations are less prone to parametric resonance is confirmed for sufficiently large coupling and damping. We also compare our results to a recently reported mean field model of collective parametric instability, showing that the two-oscillator model can capture much of the qualitative behavior of the infinite system. %U http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0008022v1