Synchronous behavior of coupled systems with discrete time

The dynamics of one-way coupled systems with discrete time is considered. The behavior of the coupled logistic maps is compared to the dynamics of maps obtained using the Poincaré sectioning procedure applied to the coupled continuous-time systems in the phase synchronization regime. The behavior (previously considered as asynchronous) of the coupled maps that appears when the complete synchronization regime is broken as the coupling parameter decreases, corresponds to the phase synchronization of flow systems, and should be considered as a synchronous regime. A quantitative measure of the degree of synchronism for the interacting systems with discrete time is proposed.