We propose a method to control chimera states in a ring-shaped network of nonlocally coupled phase oscillators. This method acts exclusivelyon the network’s connectivity. Using the idea of a pacemaker oscillator, we investigate which is the minimal action needed to control chimeras.We implement the pacemaker choosing one oscillator and making its links unidirectional. Our results show that a pacemaker induces chimerasfor parameters and initial conditions for which they do not form spontaneously. Furthermore, the pacemaker attracts the incoherent part of thechimera state, thus controlling its position. Beyond that, we find that these control effects can be achieved with modifications of the network’sconnectivity that are less invasive than a pacemaker, namely, the minimal action of just modifying the strength of one connection allows oneto control chimeras.

This project was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grant No. FIS2014-54177-R), the CERCA Program of the Generalitat de Catalunya (G.R. and R.G.A.), and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program under theMarie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 642563 (R.G.A). We acknowledge support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of the SFB 910, Projektnummer 163436311 (I.O., E.S., and A.Z.).