We study the dynamics of oscillators that are coupled in relay; namely, through an intermediary oscillator. From previous studies it is known that the oscillators show a transition from in-phase to out-of-phase oscillations or vice versa when the interactions involve a time delay. Here we show that, in the absence of time delay, relay coupling through conjugate variables has the same effect. However, this phase-flip transition does not occur abruptly at a certain critical value of the coupling parameter. Instead we find a parameter region around the phase-flip transition where bistability occurs. In this parameter interval in-phase and out-of-phase oscillations coexist with changing sizes of their basins of attraction. Further increase of the coupling strength leads to amplitude death and subsequently to the stabilization of a fixed point. These transitions are characterized through various quantities such as the average phase difference and crossings in the spectrum of Lyapunov exponents. Numerical results are presented for a specific case of coupled Rössler-like oscillators.

• Received 27 January 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.84.016226