An operational test for distinguishing between complicated and chaotic behavior in deterministic systems

✍ Scribed by M. Johnson; J. Habyarimana

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 816 KB
• Volume: 116
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-2789
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-2789(98)00011-6

✦ Synopsis

While various definitions of chaotic processes have been proposed, there is not yet an established operational criterion for computing whether a given process is chaotic. We here use a diffusional measure to characterize whether a given deterministic process and domain is chaotic (operationally defined as exhibiting stochastic behavior). This technique introduces an additional coordinate linked to the process to be examined. By then determining the growth of the second moment of orbit trajectories in this added direction, it can be determined whether the process is chaotic. It is demonstrated that two other commonly used measures of chaos, a positive Lyapunov exponent or the autocorrelation coefficient dropping to zero, fail in certain cases to detect chaotic processes, but this new proposed test works in all the cases examined.