Colored noise induces synchronization of limit cycle oscillators

Driven by various kinds of noise, ensembles of limit cycle oscillators can synchronize. In this letter, we propose a general formulation of synchronization of the oscillator ensembles driven by common colored noise with an arbitrary power spectrum. To explore statistical properties of such colored noise-induced synchronization, we derive the stationary distribution of the phase difference between two oscillators in the ensemble. This analytical result theoretically predicts various synchronized and clustered states induced by colored noise and also clarifies that these phenomena have a different synchronization mechanism from the case of white noise.