GENERAL-CASE OF CRISIS-INDUCED INTERMITTENCY IN THE DUFFING EQUATION

Intermittent time evolution of the Duffing oscillator is analyzed in t erms of multitransient chaos (i.e. two or more coexisting strange repe llors without attending any other attracting set). Chaotic hopping bet ween three as well as four coexisting repellors is shown. The mean lif etimes of particular repellors may be different and no special symmetr y of the system is required. As a result of this, we observe piecewise exponential lifetime distributions inside the regions where chaotic a ttractors existed before the crisis. The mean hopping frequency betwee n these regions is expressed via the mean lifetimes of the correspondi ng repellors.