In addition to the striking beauty inherent in their complex nature, fractals have become a fundamental ingredient of nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory since they were defined in the 1970s. Moreover, fractals have been detected in nature and in most fields of science, with even a certain influence in the arts. Fractal structures appear naturally in dynamical systems, in particular associated with the phase space. The analysis of these structures is especially useful for obtaining information about the future behavior of complex systems, since they provide fundamental knowledge about the relation between these systems and uncertainty and indeterminism. Dynamical systems are divided into two main groups: Hamiltonian and dissipative systems. The concepts of the attractor and basin of attraction are related to dissipative systems. In the case of open Hamiltonian systems, there are no attractors, but the analogous concepts of the exit and exit basin exist. Therefore basins formed by initial conditions can be computed in both Hamiltonian and dissipative systems, some of them being smooth and some fractal. This fact has fundamental consequences for predicting the future of the system. The existence of this deterministic unpredictability, usually known as final state sensitivity, is typical of chaotic systems, and makes deterministic systems become, in practice, random processes where only a probabilistic approach is possible. The main types of fractal basin, their nature, and the numerical and experimental techniques used to obtain them from both mathematical models and real phenomena are described here, with special attention to their ubiquity in different fields of physics.

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Fractal structures in nonlinear dynamics

We determine probabilities of recurrence time into finite-sized, physically meaningful subsets of phase space. We consider three different autonomous chaotic systems: (i) scattering in a three-peaked potential, (ii) connected billiards, and (iii) Lorenz equations. We find multipeaked probability distributions, similar to the distributions found in (driven) stochastically resonant systems. In nondriven systems, such as ours, only monotonic decaying distributions (exponentials, stretched exponentials, power laws, and slight variations or combinations of these) have hitherto been reported. Discrete peaks in autonomous systems have as yet escaped attention in autonomous systems and correspond to specific trajectory subsets involving an integer number of loops.

Multipeaked probability distributions of recurrence times.

We derive analytic criteria for the existence of hyperbolic (attracting or repelling), elliptic, and parabolic material lines in two-dimensional turbulence. The criteria use a frame-independent Eulerian partition of the physical space that is based on the sign definiteness of the strain acceleration tensor over directions of zero strain. For Navier–Stokes flows, our hyperbolicity criterion can be reformulated in terms of strain, vorticity, pressure, viscous and body forces. The special material lines we identify allow us to locate different kinds of material structures that enhance or suppress finite-time turbulent mixing: stretching and folding lines, Lagrangian vortex cores, and shear jets. We illustrate the use of our criteria on simulations of two-dimensional barotropic turbulence.

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Lagrangian structures and the rate of strain in a partition of two-dimensional turbulence

Finite time transport in aperiodic flows

Chemical and biological activity in open flows: A dynamical system approach

The dynamics of a passive particle in a hydrodynamical flow behind a cylinder is investigated. The velocity field has been determined both by a numerical simulation of the Navier–Stokes flow and by an analytically defined model flow. To analyze the Lagrangian dynamics, we apply methods coming from chaotic scattering: periodic orbits, time delay function, decay statistics. The asymptotic delay time statistics are dominated by the influence of the boundary conditions on the wall and exhibit algebraic decay. The short time behavior is exponential and represents hyperbolic effects.

E. M. Ziemniak

Papers

Application of scattering chaos to particle transport in a hydrodynamical flow.

Tracer dynamics in open hydrodynamical flows as chaotic scattering