Bounds for the chaotic region in the Lorenz model

In a previous paper, the authors made an extensive numerical study of the Lorenz model, changing all three parameters of the system. We conjectured that the region of parameters where the Lorenz model is chaotic is bounded for fixed r. In this paper, we give a theoretical proof of the conjecture by obtaining theoretical bounds for the chaotic region and by using Fenichel theory. The theoretical bounds are complemented with numerical studies performed using the Maximum Lyapunov Exponent and OFLI2 techniques, and a comparison of both sets of results is shown. Finally, we provide a complete three-dimensional model of the chaotic regime depending oil the three parameters. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.