Fluctuations of Spatial Patterns as a Measure of Classical Chaos

Abstract

In problems where the temporal evolution of a nonlinear system cannot be followed, a method for studying the fluctuations of spatial patterns has been developed. That method is applied to well-known problems in deterministic chaos (the logistic map and the Lorenz model) to check its effectiveness in characterizing the dynamical behaviors. It is found that the indices $\mu _q$ are as useful as the Lyapunov exponents in providing a quantitative measure of chaos.Comment: 10 pages + 7 figures (in ps file), LaTex, Submitted to Phys. Rev.