TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS OF TRANSIENT CHAOS

A time-series analysis method of transient chaos is worked out which c an also be applied to signals of laboratory experiments. The process i s based on the construction of a long artificial time series obtained by gluing pieces of many transiently chaotic signals together. This ar tificial signal represents a long-time motion in the vicinity of the n onattracting chaotic set. Thus all of the well-known numerical methods developed for analyzing permanent chaotic behavior are applicable in a more convenient way than using many short separated time-series piec es. The method is illustrated and its validity is checked by the Henon map. The nonattracting strange set is reconstructed in the presence o f both a periodic and a chaotic attractor, and quantitative characteri stics such as dimensions and Lyapunov exponents are determined by mean s of time-delay embedding methods.