SOME ATTRACTORS IN THE EXTENDED COMPLEX LORENZ MODEL

Abstract

We address the question of finding the attractors of the extended complex Lorenz model (ℂLM), which is obtained by extending the space from ℝ3 to ℂ3, and defining the model by the same equations as the classical Lorenz model (LM). We have numerical evidence of two strong attractors unrelated to the Lorenz attractor. We calculate its Lyapunov exponents and show that two of them are 0, and the other four are double and negative. Hence the attractors are nonchaotic. We show that they have a quasi-periodic nature. To decipher the structure of these attractors, we introduce the imaginary Lorenz model (𝕀LM), which is defined in the same space ℂ3 by multiplying with [Formula: see text] the Lorenz equations. Both models locally commute, and with its help we account for the double Lyapunov exponent 0 and show evidence that the basin of attraction of each attractor is a big open set of ℂ3. The chaotic limit set Lℂ ⊂ ℂ3 obtained from the classical Lorenz attractor L0 of (LM) by moving it with the (𝕀LM) has two positive Lyapunov exponents, but only captures a set of 6D-volume 0 in its basin of attraction. Hence this attractor may be hyperchaotic in ℝ5.