A lot of strange attractors: Chaotic or not?

Iterations on R given by quasiperiodic displacement are closely linked with the quasiperiodic forcing of an oscillator. We begin by recalling how these problems are related. It enables us to predict the possibility of appearance of strange nonchaotic attractors (SNAs) for simple increasing maps of the real line with quasiperiodic displacement. Chaos is not possible in this case (Lyapounov exponents cannot be positive). Studying this model of iterations on R for larger variations, beyond critical values where it is no longer invertible, we can get chaotic motions. In this situation we can get a lot of strange attractors because we are able to smoothly adjust the value of the Lyapounov exponent. The SNAs obtained can be viewed as the result of pasting pieces of trajectories, some of which having positive local Lyapounov exponents and others having negative ones. This leads us to think that the distinction between these SNAs and chaotic attractors is rather weak. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.