Frustration induced transient chaos, fractal and riddled basins in coupled limit cycle oscillators

•The role frustration inducing multistability and transient chaotic dynamics is discussed.•Identification of frustration as a source of transient chaos using simple array of coupled limit cycle oscillators.•Existence complex basin structure such as fractal and riddled basins in oscillation death region is identified.•Emergence of transient chaos around the chaotic itenerancy region is explored, which may have potential application in neurocomputation. This report unravels frustration as a source of transient chaotic dynamics even in a simple array of coupled limit cycle oscillators. The transient chaotic dynamics along with the multistable nature of frustrated systems facilitates the existence of complex basin structures such as fractal and riddled basins. In particular, we report the emergence of transient chaotic dynamics around the chaotic itinerancy region, where the basin of attraction near the chaotic region is riddled and it becomes fractal basin when we move away from this region. Normally the complex basin structures are observed only for oscillatory states but surprisingly it is also observed even for oscillation death states. Interestingly super persistent transient chaos is also shown to emerge in the coupled limit cycle oscillators, which manifests as a stable chaos for larger networks.