TOPOLOGICAL CHAOS FOR A CLASS OF LINEAR MODELS

Abstract

We construct an example of linear rate equation in the Banach space of summable sequences, l1, that exhibits the three properties required as signature of topological chaos, namely: (i) topological transitivity, (ii) dense periodic orbits, and (iii) positive Lyapunov exponents. The example is based on the properties of the backward shift operator on the Banach space l1. Since linear chaos in the sense described above can occur only in an infinite-dimensional setting, possible finite-dimensional approximate manifestations are investigated. The relationship between the linear backward shift and the nonlinear Bernoulli shift is also discussed.