Chaotic spatial bifurcation by complex coupling.

A spatial bifurcation (a transition from stationary to oscillatory regime) in a chain of unidirectionally coupled phase systems is studied. It is shown that complication of coupling terms can make this bifurcation spatially chaotic in contrast to the previously observed "regular" and "predictable" type. It is demonstrated that the found type of spatial bifurcation corresponds to a smooth (predictable) manifold in the parameter space, while its spatial location gets actually unpredictable being governed by regularities of chaotic behavior.