  We study the transition from incoherence to coherence in large networks of
coupled phase oscillators. We present various approximations that describe the
behavior of an appropriately defined order parameter past the transition, and
generalize recent results for the critical coupling strength. We find that,
under appropriate conditions, the coupling strength at which the transition
occurs is determined by the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix. We show
how, with an additional assumption, a mean field approximation recently
proposed is recovered from our results. We test our theory with numerical
simulations, and find that it describes the transition when our assumptions are
satisfied. We find that our theory describes the transition well in situations
in which the mean field approximation fails. We study the finite size effects
caused by nodes with small degree and find that they cause the critical
coupling strength to increase.
