skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Progress in the analysis of experimental chaos through periodic orbits

Journal Article · · Reviews of Modern Physics; (United States)
 [1];  [2];  [1]; ; ; ; ;  [2]
  1. Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen (Switzerland)
  2. Physics Institute, University of Zuerich, CH-8057 Zuerich (Switzerland)

The understanding of chaotic systems can be considerably improved with the knowledge of their periodic-orbit structure. The identification of the low-order unstable periodic orbits embedded in a strange attractor induces a hierarchical organization of the dynamics which is invariant under smooth coordinate changes. The applicability of this technique is by no means limited to analytical or numerical calculations, but has been recently extended to experimental time series. As a specific example, the authors review some of the major results obtained on a nuclear-magnetic-resonance laser which have led to an extension of the conventional (Bloch-Kirchhoff) equations of motion, to the construction of approximate generating partitions, and to an efficient control of the chaotic system around various unstable periodic orbits. The determination of the symbolic dynamics, with the precision achieved by recording all unstable cycles up to order 9, improves the topological and metric characterization of a heteroclinic crisis. The periodic-orbit approach permits detailed study of chaotic motion, thereby leading to an improved classification scheme which subsumes the older ones, based on estimates of scalar quantities such as fractal dimensions and metric entropies.

OSTI ID:
6644894
Journal Information:
Reviews of Modern Physics; (United States), Vol. 66:4; ISSN 0034-6861
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Unstable periodic orbits and the symbolic dynamics of the complex Henon map
Journal Article · Mon Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Physical Review, A; (USA) · OSTI ID:6644894

Using heteroclinic orbits to quantify topological entropy in fluid flows
Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Chaos (Woodbury, N. Y.) · OSTI ID:6644894

Optimal periodic orbits of continuous time chaotic systems
Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2000 · Physical Review. E, Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics · OSTI ID:6644894