Growth and performance of the periodic orbits of a nonlinear driven oscillator

Abstract

Periodic orbits are fundamental to nonlinear systems. We investigate periodic orbits for a dissipative mapping, derived from a prototype model of a non-linear driven oscillator with fast relaxation and a limit cycle. We show numerically the exponential growth of periodic orbits quantity and provide an analytical bound for such growth rate, by making use of the transition matrix associated with a given periodic orbit. Furthermore, we give numerical evidence to support that optimal orbits, those that maximize time averages, are often unstable periodic orbits with low period, by numerically comparing their performance under a family of sinusoidal functions.