Mechanism for the riddling transition in coupled chaotic systems

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2001 Feb;63(2 Pt 2):026217. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.63.026217. Epub 2001 Jan 25.

Abstract

We investigate the loss of chaos synchronization in coupled chaotic systems without symmetry from the point of view of bifurcations of unstable periodic orbits embedded in the synchronous chaotic attractor (SCA). A mechanism for direct transition to global riddling through a transcritical contact bifurcation between a periodic saddle embedded in the SCA and a repeller on the boundary of its basin of attraction is thus found. Note that this bifurcation mechanism is different from that in coupled chaotic systems with symmetry. After such a riddling transition, the basin becomes globally riddled with a dense set of repelling tongues leading to divergent orbits. This riddled basin is also characterized by divergence and uncertainty exponents, and thus typical power-law scaling is found.