Can Strange Nonchaotic Dynamics be induced through Stochastic Driving?

Abstract

Upon addition of noise, chaotic motion in low-dimensional dynamical systems can sometimes be transformed into nonchaotic dynamics: namely, the largest Lyapunov exponent can be made nonpositive. We study this phenomenon in model systems with a view to understanding the circumstances when such behaviour is possible. This technique for inducing ``order'' through stochastic driving works by modifying the invariant measure on the attractor: by appropriately increasing measure on those portions of the attractor where the dynamics is contracting, the overall dynamics can be made nonchaotic, however {\it not} a strange nonchaotic attractor. Alternately, by decreasing measure on contracting regions, the largest Lyapunov exponent can be enhanced. A number of different chaos control and anticontrol techniques are known to function on this paradigm.