Chaotic bursting at the onset of unstable dimension variability

Riddled basins of chaotic synchronization and unstable dimension variability in coupled Lorenz-like systems

Unstable dimension variability is an extreme form of non-hyperbolic behavior that causes a severe shadowing breakdown of chaotic trajectories. This phenomenon can occur in coupled chaotic systems possessing symmetries, leading to an invariant attractor with riddled basins of attraction. We consider the coupling of two Lorenz-like systems, which exhibits chaotic synchronized and anti-synchronized states, with their respective basins of attraction. We demonstrate that these basins are riddled, in the sense that they verify both the mathematical conditions for their existence, as well as the characteristic scaling laws indicating power-law dependence of parameters. Our simulations have shown that a biased random-walk model for the log-distances to the synchronized manifold can accurately predict the scaling exponents near blowout bifurcations in this high-dimensional coupled system. The behavior of the finite-time Lyapunov exponents in directions transversal to the invariant subspace has been used as numerical evidence of unstable dimension variability.

Two-state on-off intermittency caused by unstable dimension variability in periodically forced drift waves

Certain high-dimensional dynamical systems present two or more attractors characterized by different energy branches. For some parameter values the dynamics oscillates between these two branches in a seemingly random fashion, a phenomenon called two-state on-off intermittency. In this work we show that the dynamical mechanism underlying this intermittency involves the severe breakdown of hyperbolicity of the attractors through a mechanism known as unstable dimension variability. We characterize the parametric evolution of this variability using statistical properties of the finite-time Lyapunov exponents. As a model system that exhibits this behavior we consider periodically forced and damped drift waves. In this spatiotemporal example there is a low-dimensional chaotic attractor that is created by an interior crisis, already presenting unstable dimension variability.

Parametric evolution of unstable dimension variability in coupled piecewise-linear chaotic maps

In the presence of unstable dimension variability numerical solutions of chaotic systems are valid only for short periods of observation. For this reason, analytical results for systems that exhibit this phenomenon are needed. Aiming to go one step further in obtaining such results, we study the parametric evolution of unstable dimension variability in two coupled bungalow maps. Each of these maps presents intervals of linearity that define Markov partitions, which are recovered for the coupled system in the case of synchronization. Using such partitions we find exact results for the onset of unstable dimension variability and for contrast measure, which quantifies the intensity of the phenomenon in terms of the stability of the periodic orbits embedded in the synchronization subspace.

Periodic-orbit analysis and scaling laws of intermingled basins of attraction in an ecological dynamical system

Chaotic dynamical systems with two or more attractors lying on invariant subspaces may, provided certain mathematical conditions are fulfilled, exhibit intermingled basins of attraction: Each basin is riddled with holes belonging to basins of the other attractors. In order to investigate the occurrence of such phenomenon in dynamical systems of ecological interest (two-species competition with extinction) we have characterized quantitatively the intermingled basins using periodic-orbit theory and scaling laws. The latter results agree with a theoretical prediction from a stochastic model, and also with an exact result for the scaling exponent we derived for the specific class of models investigated. We discuss the consequences of the scaling laws in terms of the predictability of a final state (extinction of either species) in an ecological experiment.

Transversal dynamics of a non-locally-coupled map lattice

A lattice of coupled chaotic dynamical systems may exhibit a completely synchronized state, which defines a low-dimensional invariant manifold in phase space. However, the high dimensionality of the latter typically yields a complex dynamics with many features like chaos suppression, quasiperiodicity, multistability, and intermittency. Such phenomena are described by considering the transversal dynamics to the synchronization manifold for a coupled logistic map lattice with a long-range coupling prescription.

Periodic orbit analysis at the onset of the unstable dimension variability and at the blowout bifurcation

Many chaotic dynamical systems of physical interest present a strong form of nonhyperbolicity called unstable dimension variability (UDV), for which the chaotic invariant set contains periodic orbits possessing different numbers of unstable eigendirections. The onset of UDV is usually related to the loss of transversal stability of an unstable fixed point embedded in the chaotic set. In this paper, we present a new mechanism for the onset of UDV, whereby the period of the unstable orbits losing transversal stability tends to infinity as we approach the onset of UDV. This mechanism is unveiled by means of a periodic orbit analysis of the invariant chaotic attractor for two model dynamical systems with phase spaces of low dimensionality, and seems to depend heavily on the chaotic dynamics in the invariant set. We also described, for these systems, the blowout bifurcation (for which the chaotic set as a whole loses transversal stability) and its relation with the situation where the effects of UDV are the most intense. For the latter point, we found that chaotic trajectories off, but very close to, the invariant set exhibit the same scaling characteristic of the so-called on-off intermittency.

Some aspects of the synchronization in coupled maps

We numerically study the synchronization behavior of a coupled map lattice consisting of a chain of chaotic logistic maps exhibiting power law interactions. We report two main results. First, we find a practical lower bound in the lattice size in order that this system could be considered in the thermodynamic limit in numerical simulations. Second, we observe the existence of a strong correlation between the Lyapunov dimension and the averaged synchronization time.

Validity of numerical trajectories in the synchronization transition of complex systems

We investigate the relationship between the loss of synchronization and the onset of shadowing breakdown via unstable dimension variability in complex systems. In the neighborhood of the critical transition to strongly nonhyperbolic behavior, the system undergoes on-off intermittency with respect to the synchronization state. There are potentially severe consequences of these facts on the validity of the computer-generated trajectories obtained from dynamical systems whose synchronization manifolds share the same nonhyperbolic properties.