Chirality detected in Hartley’s electronic oscillator

Abstract

AbstractChirality is an elusive asymmetry important in science and technology and confined mainly to the quantum realm. This paper reports the observation of chirality in a classical (that is, not quantum) scenario, namely in stability diagrams of an autonomous electronic oscillator with a junction-gate field-effect transistor (JFET) and a tapped coil. As the number of spikes (local maxima) of stable oscillations changes along closed parameter paths, they generate two types of intricate structures. Surprisingly, such pair of structures are artful images of each other when reflected on a mirror. They are dual chiral pairs interconnecting families of stable oscillations in closed loops. Chiral pairs should not be difficult to detect experimentally. This chirality is conjectured to be a generic property of nonlinear oscillators governed by classical (that is, not quantum) equations.