Jacobi fields on statistical manifolds of negative curvature

Two entropic dynamical models are considered. The geometric structure of the statistical manifolds underlying these models is studied. It is found that in both cases, the resulting metric manifolds are negatively curved. Moreover, the geodesics on each manifold are described by hyperbolic trajectories. A detailed analysis based on the Jacobi equation for geodesic spread is used to show that the hyperbolicity of the manifolds leads to chaotic exponential instability. A comparison between the two models leads to a relation among statistical curvature, stability of geodesics and relative entropy-like quantities. Finally, the Jacobi vector field intensity and the entropy-like quantity are suggested as possible indicators of chaoticity in the ED models due to their similarity to the conventional chaos indicators based on the Riemannian geometric approach and the Zurek-Paz criterion of linear entropy growth, respectively. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.