  We report the emergence of a collective dynamical state, namely phase-flip
chimera, from an en- semble of identical nonlinear oscillators that are coupled
indirectly via the dynamical variables from a common environment, which in turn
are nonlocally coupled. The phase-flip chimera is character- ized by the
coexistence of two adjacent out-of-phase synchronized coherent domains
interspersed by an incoherent domain, in which the nearby oscillators are in
out-of-phase synchronized states. At- tractors of the coherent domains are
either from the same or different basins of attractions depending on whether
they are periodic or chaotic. Conventional chimera precedes the phase-flip
chimera in general. Further, the phase-flip chimera emerges after the
completely synchronized evolution of the ensemble in contrast to conventional
chimeras which emerge as an intermediate state between completely incoherent
and coherent states. We have also characterized the observed dynamical
transitions using the strength of incoherence, probability distribution of
correlation coefficient and the framework of master stability function.

Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems