THE EFFECTS OF SYMMETRY BREAKING IN CHUA'S CIRCUIT AND RELATED PIECEWISE-LINEAR DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS

Abstract

The behavior of transfer and return maps in the intermediate region of Chua's circuit and related systems undergoes a number of changes as the symmetry of the dynamics is broken, i.e., the separating planes are moved away from symmetric positions. We employ the technique of maps induced by the flow of the system and construct the critical curves for the maps in the intermediate region of state space. The influence of a broken symmetry on the critical curves and the flow is discussed in depth. We demonstrate that any breaking of symmetry potentially weakens and eventually destroys the chaos producing mechanisms.