BIFURCATION AND CHAOS IN THE TINKERBELL MAP

In this paper, the dynamical behaviors of the Tinkerbell map are investigated in detail. Conditions for the existence of fold bifurcation, flip bifurcation and Hopf bifurcation are derived, and chaos in the sense of Marotto is verified by both analytical and numerical methods. Numerical simulations include bifurcation diagrams in two- and three-dimensional spaces, phase portraits, and the maximum Lyapunov exponent and fractal dimension, as well as the distribution of dynamics in the parameter plane, which exhibit new and interesting dynamical behaviors. More specifically, this paper reports the findings of chaos in the sense of Marotto, a route from an invariant circle to transient chaos with a great abundance of periodic windows, including period-2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 19, 23, 26 and so on, and suddenly appearing or disappearing chaos, convergence of an invariant circle to a period-one orbit, symmetry-breaking of periodic orbits, interlocking period-doubling bifurcations in chaotic regions, interior crisis, chaotic attractors, coexisting (2, 10, 13) chaotic sets, two coexisting invariant circles, two attracting chaotic sets coexisting with a non-attracting chaotic set, and so on, all in the Tinkerbell map. In particular, it is found that there is no obvious road from period-doubling bifurcations to chaos, but there is a route from a period-one orbit to an invariant circle and then to transient chaos as the parameters are varied. Combining the existing results in the current literature with the new results reported in this paper, a more complete understanding of the Tinkerbell map is obtained.