Introduction

Abstract

We numerically investigate hyperchaotic behavior in an autonomous nonlinear system of fractional order. It is demonstrated that hyperchaotic behavior of the integer order nonlinear system is preserved when the order becomes fractional. The system under study has been reported in the literature [Murali K, Tamasevicius A, Mykolaitis G, Namajunas A, Lindberg E. Hyperchaotic system with unstable oscillators. Nonlinear Phenom Complex Syst 3(1);2000:7–10], and consists of two nonlinearly coupled unstable oscillators, each consisting of an amplifier and an LC resonance loop. The fractional order model of this system is obtained by replacing one or both of its capacitors by fractional order capacitors. Hyperchaos is then assessed by studying the Lyapunov spectrum. The presence of multiple positive Lyapunov exponents in the spectrum is indicative of hyperchaos. Using the appropriate system control parameters, it is demonstrated that hyperchaotic attractors are obtained for a system order less than 4. Consequently, we present a conjecture that fourth-order hyperchaotic nonlinear systems can still produce hyperchaotic behavior with a total system order of 3 + ε, where 1 > ε > 0.