Dynamical systems in the real domain are currently one of the most popular areas of scientific study. A wealth of new phenomena of bifurcations and chaos has been discovered concerning the dynamics of nonlinear systems in real phase space. There is, however, a wide variety of physical problems, which, from a mathematical point of view, can be more conveniently studied using complex variables. The main advantage of introducing complex variables is the reduction of phase space dimensions by a half. In this survey, we shall focus on such classes of autonomous, parametrically excited and modulated systems of complex nonlinear oscillators. We first describe appropriate perturbation approaches, which have been specially adapted to study periodic solutions, their stability and control. The stability analysis of these fundamental periodic solutions, though local by itself, can yield considerable information about more global properties of the dynamics, since it is in the vicinity of such solutions that the largest regions of regular or chaotic motion are observed, depending on whether the periodic solution is, respectively, stable or unstable. We then summarize some recent studies on fixed points, periodic solutions, strange attractors, chaotic behavior and the problem of chaos control in systems of complex oscillators. Some important applications in physics, mechanics and engineering are mentioned. The connection with a class of complex partial differential equations, which contains such famous examples, as the nonlinear Schrödinger and Ginzburg–Landau equations is also discussed. These complex equations play an important role in many branches of physics, e.g. fluids, superconductors, plasma physics, geophysical fluids, modulated optical waves and electromagnetic fields.
