Piecewise-linear chaotic systems with a single equilibrium point

As a unique paradigm for chaos, the various versions of Chua's circuits and equations consists of a three-dimensional autonomous system with a three-segment piecewise-linear function which gives rise to three equilibrium points. This paper considers the possibility of simplifying the system configurations of piecewise-linear chaotic systems based on the structures of Chua's systems. We study a new class of piecewise-linear three-dimensional autonomous system with a three-segment piecewise-linear function. However, unlike Chua's systems, the systems we study in this paper have only single equilibrium points. To find chaotic attractors from this class of systems, we use a systematic random-search process to search the parameter space. The searching process consists of three stages. For the first stage, we simply count the number of points on a Poincare section and find candidates for chaotic attractors. At the second stage, Lyapunov exponents are calculated for selecting chaotic attractors from the candidates. Finally, bifurcation diagrams constructed around the located chaotic attractors are used to find different types of chaotic attractors. Many qualitatively different chaotic attractors of this class of systems had been found and presented in this paper. Another method to simplify the configurations of a piecewise-linear chaotic system is to reduce the number of segments of the piecewise-linear function. We have developed some chaotic systems with a two-segment piecewise-linear function and which gives rise to two equilibrium points. Many color illustrations of chaotic attractors and bifurcation diagrams are presented.