Synchronization of a new fractional-order hyperchaotic system

In this letter, a new fractional-order hyperchaotic system is proposed. By utilizing the fractional calculus theory and computer simulations, it is found that hyperchaos exists in the new fractional-order four-dimensional system with order less than 4. The lowest order to have hyperchaos in this system is 2.88. The results are validated by the existence of two positive Lyapunov exponents. Using the pole placement technique, a nonlinear state observer is designed to synchronize a class of nonlinear fractional-order systems. The observer method is used to synchronize two identical fractional-order hyperchaotic systems. In addition, the active control technique is applied to synchronize the new fractional-order hyperchaotic system and the fractional-order Chen hyperchaotic system. The two schemes, based on the stability theory of the fractional-order system, are rather simple, theoretically rigorous and convenient to realize synchronization. They do not require the computation of the conditional Lyapunov exponents. Numerical results are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization schemes. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.