The system
A jerk system is a nonlinear dynamical system which can be rewritten under a canonical form, that is, as a function of one of its dynamical variables and its successive derivatives. Jean-Marc Malasoma proposed the simplest equivariant jerk system reading as [1]
where and
. This system is equivariant, that is, it obeys to the relation
where
is a
matrix defining the symmetry properties. In
the present case, the
-matrix
defines an inversion symmetry . It means that the vector field
is invariant when
are mapped into
. This simplest equivariant jerk system has a single fixed point
located at the origin of the phase space. It is a saddle-focus with one negative real eigenvalue and two complex conjugate eigenvalues with positive real part. With
, a chaotic attractor is obtained.
This system was investigated in terms of its image, that is, under the two-to-one mapping allowing to obtain a projection of the dynamics without any residual symmetry [2]. The inversion symmetry of the simplest equivariant system is therefore modded out. The bifurcation diagram can be thus predicted from the unimodal order although the first-return map computed in the original phase space exhibits three critical points. This feature is the same than the one observed on the Burke & Shaw system although this latter system has a rotation symmetry.
[1] J.-M. Malasoma, What is the simplest dissipative chaotic jerk equation which is parity invariant?, Physics Letters A, 264, 383-389, 2000.
[2] C. Letellier & J.-M. Malasoma, Unimodal order in the image of the simplest equivariant jerk system, Physical Review E, 64, 067202, 2001.