May chaos always be suppressed by parametric perturbations?

Abstract

The problem of chaos suppression by parametric perturbations is considered. Despite the widespread opinion that chaotic behavior may be stabilized by perturbations of any system parameter, we construct a counterexample showing that this is not necessarily the case. In general, chaos suppression means that parametric perturbations should be applied within a set of parameters at which the system has a positive maximal Lyapunov exponent. Analyzing the known Duffing-Holmes model by a Melnikov method, we showed that chaotic dynamics cannot be suppressed by harmonic perturbations of a certain parameter, independently from the other parameter values. Thus, to stabilize the behavior of chaotic systems, the perturbation and parameters should be carefully chosen. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.