All issues

The article discusses the emergence of chaotic attractors in the system of three ordinary differential equations arising in the theory of «reaction-diffusion» systems. The dynamics of the corresponding one- and two-dimensional maps and Lyapunov exponents of such attractors are studied. It is shown that the transition to chaos is in accordance with a non-traditional scenario of repeated birth and disappearance of chaotic regimes, which had been previously studied for one-dimensional maps with a sharp apex and a quadratic minimum. Some characteristic features of the system — zones of bistability and hyperbolicity, the crisis of chaotic attractors — are studied by means of numerical analysis.

The work outlines the key ideas of Kurdyumov S.P., an outstanding specialist in applied mathematics, self-organization theory, transdisciplinary research. It considers the development of his scientific ideas in the last decade and formulates a set of open problems in synergetics which will probably stimulate the development of this approach. The article is an engaged version of the report made at Xth Kurdyumov readings held in Tver State University in 2015.

In this paper we consider the properties of the random iterated function systems (RIFS) obtained using a generalization of the Chaos game algorithm. Used for the RIFS simulation R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The similarity dimension by the polygonal protofractals Z = {z_j}, j = 1, 2, . . . , k nonmonotonically depends on the RIFS parameters d_S(μ|k) with an extreme value max d_S(μ|k)=−ln k/ln(1/(1+μ)).

In the last decades, universal scenarios of the transition to chaos in dynamic systems have been well studied. The scenario of the transition to chaos is defined as a sequence of bifurcations that occur in the system under the variation one of the governing parameters and lead to a qualitative change in dynamics, starting from the regular mode and ending with chaotic behavior. Typical scenarios include a cascade of period doubling bifurcations (Feigenbaum scenario), the breakup of a low-dimensional torus (Ruelle–Takens scenario), and the transition to chaos through the intermittency (Pomeau–Manneville scenario). In more complicated spatially distributed dynamic systems, the complexity of dynamic behavior growing with a parameter change is closely intertwined with the formation of spatial structures. However, the question of whether the spatial and temporal axes could completely exchange roles in some scenario still remains open. In this paper, for the first time, we propose a mathematical model of convection–diffusion–reaction, in which a spatial transition to chaos through the breakup of the quasi–periodic regime is realized in the framework of the Ruelle–Takens scenario. The physical system under consideration consists of two aqueous solutions of acid (A) and base (B), initially separated in space and placed in a vertically oriented Hele–Shaw cell subject to the gravity field. When the solutions are brought into contact, the frontal neutralization reaction of the second order A + B $\to$ C begins, which is accompanied by the production of salt (C). The process is characterized by a strong dependence of the diffusion coefficients of the reagents on their concentration, which leads to the appearance of two local zones of reduced density, in which chemoconvective fluid motions develop independently. Although the layers, in which convection develops, all the time remain separated by the interlayer of motionless fluid, they can influence each other via a diffusion of reagents through this interlayer. The emerging chemoconvective structure is the modulated standing wave that gradually breaks down over time, repeating the sequence of the bifurcation chain of the Ruelle–Takens scenario. We show that during the evolution of the system one of the spatial axes, directed along the reaction front, plays the role of time, and time itself starts to play the role of a control parameter.

This article presents the results of an analytical and computer study of the collective dynamic properties of a chain of self-oscillating systems (conditionally — oscillators). It is assumed that the couplings of individual elements of the chain are non-reciprocal, unidirectional. More precisely, it is assumed that each element of the chain is under the influence of the previous one, while the reverse reaction is absent (physically insignificant). This is the main feature of the chain. This system can be interpreted as an active discrete medium with unidirectional transfer, in particular, the transfer of a matter. Such chains can represent mathematical models of real systems having a lattice structure that occur in various fields of natural science and technology: physics, chemistry, biology, radio engineering, economics, etc. They can also represent models of technological and computational processes. Nonlinear self-oscillating systems (conditionally, oscillators) with a wide “spectrum” of potentially possible individual self-oscillations, from periodic to chaotic, were chosen as the “elements” of the lattice. This allows one to explore various dynamic modes of the chain from regular to chaotic, changing the parameters of the elements and not changing the nature of the elements themselves. The joint application of qualitative methods of the theory of dynamical systems and qualitative-numerical methods allows one to obtain a clear picture of all possible dynamic regimes of the chain. The conditions for the existence and stability of spatially-homogeneous dynamic regimes (deterministic and chaotic) of the chain are studied. The analytical results are illustrated by a numerical experiment. The dynamical regimes of the chain are studied under perturbations of parameters at its boundary. The possibility of controlling the dynamic regimes of the chain by turning on the necessary perturbation at the boundary is shown. Various cases of the dynamics of chains comprised of inhomogeneous (different in their parameters) elements are considered. The global chaotic synchronization (of all oscillators in the chain) is studied analytically and numerically.

We present the results of a mathematical model for the aquatic communities which include zooplankton, planktivorous fish and predator fish. The aquatic populations are considered to be body mass- and agestructured, while the trophic relations between the populations to be correspondingly status-specific. The model reproduces diverse dynamic regimes as such steady states and oscillations in the population size. Oscillations in the fish population size are shown to be both regular and irregular. We show that the period of the regular oscillations can be up to decades. The irregular oscillations are shown to be both chaotic and non-chaotic. Analyzing the dynamics in the model parameter space has enabled us to conclude that predictability of fish population dynamics can face difficulties both due to dynamical chaos and to the competition between various dynamical regimes caused by variations in the model parameters, specifically in the zooplankton growth rate.

This paper addresses the problem of the plane-parallel motion of an elliptic foil with an attached point vortex of constant strength in an ideal fluid. It is assumed that the position of the vortex relative to the foil remains unchanged during motion. The flow of the fluid outside the body is assumed to be potential (except for the singularity corresponding to a point vortex), and the flow around the body is noncirculatory. Special attention is given to the general position case in which the point vortex does not lie on the continuations of the semiaxes of the ellipse. The problem under consideration is described by a system of six first-order differential equations. After reduction by the motion group of the plane E(2) it reduces to a system of three differential equations. An analysis of this reduced system is made. It is shown that this system admits one to five fixed points which correspond to motions of the ellipse in various circles. By numerically investigating the phase flow of the reduced system near fixed points, it is shown that, in the general case, the system admits no invariant measure with a smooth positive definite density. Parameter values are found for which one of the fixed points of the reduced system is an unstable node-focus. It is shown that, as the variation of the parameters is continued, an unstable limit cycle can arise from an unstable fixed point via an Andronov – Hopf bifurcation. An analysis is made of bifurcations of this limit cycle for the case where the position of the point vortex relative to the ellipse changes. By constructing a parametric bifurcation diagram, it is shown that, as the system’s parameters are varied, the limit cycle undergoes a cascade of period-doubling bifurcations, giving rise to a chaotic repeller (a reversed-time attractor). To carry out a numerical analysis of the problem, the method of constructing a twodimensional Poincaré map is used. The search for and analysis of simple and strange repellers were performed backward in time.

The propagation of stable coherent entities of an electromagnetic field in nonlinear media with parameters varying in space can be described in the framework of iterations of nonlinear integral transformations. It is shown that for a set of geometries relevant to typical problems of nonlinear optics, numerical modeling by reducing to dynamical systems with discrete time and continuous spatial variables to iterates of local nonlinear Feigenbaum and Ikeda mappings and nonlocal diffusion-dispersion linear integral transforms is equivalent to partial differential equations of the Ginzburg–Landau type in a fairly wide range of parameters. Such nonlocal mappings, which are the products of matrix operators in the numerical implementation, turn out to be stable numerical- difference schemes, provide fast convergence and an adequate approximation of solutions. The realism of this approach allows one to take into account the effect of noise on nonlinear dynamics by superimposing a spatial noise specified in the form of a multimode random process at each iteration and selecting the stable wave configurations. The nonlinear wave formations described by this method include optical phase singularities, spatial solitons, and turbulent states with fast decay of correlations. The particular interest is in the periodic configurations of the electromagnetic field obtained by this numerical method that arise as a result of phase synchronization, such as optical lattices and self-organized vortex clusters.

This study develops a previously proposed Method of Computer Analogy (MCA) based on formalization of digital computer operations. The paper discusses the position of the proposed approach among other well-known methods. It is emphasized that the primary objective is to derive analytical solutions, although in some cases they have to resort to semianalytical approximations. The paper focuses on constructing solutions for systems which, for certain parameter values, demonstrate the deterministic chaos behavior, namely Lorenz, Marioka – Shimitsu and R¨ossler systems. The paper also considers obtaining solution for Van der Pol equation (reduced to a nonlinear system). The aim of the study is to construct semi-analytical solutions represented as a segment of a power series in a step size of approximating difference scheme. To prevent overflow, authors formalize rank transfer operation. The authors apply a convergent difference scheme, referred to as the “guiding” scheme, to advance to the next step of the independent variable. The resulting approximation by a sum with only a few terms provides an approximation to the solution with any accuracy in accordance with the accuracy of the governing difference scheme. The senior digits in the resulting approximation exhibit probabilistic properties that can be modeled by known distributions, thereby enabling the derivation of analytical and semi-analytical approximations. The paper presents linear approximations that are the base for a complete approximations of solutions and provide important qualitative as well as some quantitative properties of solutions of considered systems. This work describes approximations of various orders, including those that do not guarantee convergence to the exact solution, but simplify the analysis of certain properties of nonlinear equations and systems. In particular, for the Van der Pol equation, authors demonstrate that its corresponding system has a cyclic solution and provide an estimate of its scale. A modification of the MCA that has features of the Monte Carlo method makes it possible to remove recurrent sequences and construct complete solutions in simple situations. The authors mention a promising approach for representing the solution using branched continued fractions.

This paper provides an overview of studies on nonlinear supratransmission and related phenomena. This effect consists in the transfer of energy at frequencies not supported by the systems under consideration. The supratransmission does not depend on the integrability of the system, it is resistant to damping and various classes of boundary conditions. In addition, a nonlinear discrete medium, under certain general conditions imposed on the structure, can create instability due to external periodic influence. This instability is the generative process underlying the nonlinear supratransmission. This is possible when the system supports nonlinear modes of various nature, in particular, discrete breathers. Then the energy penetrates into the system as soon as the amplitude of the external harmonic excitation exceeds the maximum amplitude of the static breather of the same frequency.

The effect of nonlinear supratransmission is an important property of many discrete structures. A necessary condition for its existence is the discreteness and nonlinearity of the medium. Its manifestation in systems of various nature speaks of its fundamentality and significance. This review considers the main works that touch upon the issue of nonlinear supratransmission in various systems, mainly model ones.

Many teams of authors are studying this effect. First of all, these are models described by discrete equations, including sin-Gordon and the discrete Schr¨odinger equation. At the same time, the effect is not exclusively model and manifests itself in full-scale experiments in electrical circuits, in nonlinear chains of oscillators, as well as in metastable modular metastructures. There is a gradual complication of models, which leads to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of supratransmission, and the transition to disordered structures and those with elements of chaos structures allows us to talk about a more subtle manifestation of this effect. Numerical asymptotic approaches make it possible to study nonlinear supratransmission in complex nonintegrable systems. The complication of all kinds of oscillators, both physical and electrical, is relevant for various real devices based on such systems, in particular, in the field of nano-objects and energy transport in them through the considered effect. Such systems include molecular and crystalline clusters and nanodevices. In the conclusion of the paper, the main trends in the research of nonlinear supratransmission are given.