Characterization of an experimental strange attractor by periodic orbits

Abstract

We describe a general procedure to locate periodic saddle orbits in a chaotic attractor reconstructed from experimental data. The method is applied to data from a Belousov-Zhabotinskii chemical reaction. The eigenvalues associated with the saddle orbits are used to estimate the Lyapunov exponents. An analysis of the next amplitude map determines the allowable periodic orbits and yields an estimate of the topological entropy. © 1989 The American Physical Society.