Quint points lattice and multistability in a damped-driven curved carbon nanotube oscillator model.

Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) can undergo arbitrarily large nonlinear deformations without permanent damage to the atomic structure and mechanical properties. The dynamic response observed in curved SWCNTs under externally driven forces has fundamental implications in science and technology. Therefore, it is interesting to study the nonlinear dynamics of a damped-driven curved SWCNT oscillator model if two control parameters are varied simultaneously, e.g., the external driven strength and damping parameters. For this purpose, we construct high-resolution two-dimensional stability diagrams and, unexpectedly, we identify (i) the existence of a quint points lattice merged in a domain of periodic dynamics, (ii) the coexistence of different stable states for the same parameter combinations and different initial conditions (multistability), and (iii) the existence of infinite self-organized generic stable periodic structures (SPSs) merged into chaotic dynamics domains. The quint points lattice found here is composed of five distinct stability domains that coalesce and are associated with five different periodic attractors. The multistability is characterized by the coexistence of three different multi-attractors combinations for three exemplary parameter sets: two periodic attractors, two chaotic attractors, or one periodic and one chaotic attractor. This study demonstrates how complex the dynamics of a damped-driven curved SWCNT oscillator model can be when parameters and initial conditions are varied. For this reason, it may have a relevant impact on new theoretical and experimental applications of damped-driven curved SWCNTs.