Chimera states have attracted significant attention as symmetry-broken states exhibiting the coexistence of coherence and incoherence. Despite the valuable insights gained by analyzing specific systems, the understanding of the physical mechanism underlying the emergence of chimeras has been incomplete. In this presentation, I will argue that an important class of stable chimeras arise because coherence in part of the system is sustained by incoherence in the rest of the system. This mechanism may be regarded as a deterministic analog of noise-induced synchronization and is shown to underlie the emergence of so-called strong chimeras. These are chimera states whose coherent domain is formed by identically synchronized oscillators. The link between coherence and incoherence revealed by this mechanism also offers insights into the dynamics of a broader class of states, including switching chimera states and incoherence-mediated remote synchronization.
