Chaotic behaviour of a fourth-order autonomous electric circuit

The chaotic dynamics of a fourth-order autonomous nonlinear electric circuit was studied by measuring its response in the form of chaotic time series. The circuit consists of two active elements, one linear negative conductance and one nonlinear resistor exhibiting a symmetrical piecewise-linear nu-i characteristic and two capacitances C-1 and C-2, which serve as the control parameters of the system. From the experimental time series the minimum embedding dimensions m(min) = 4, correlation dimensions nu, with positive noninteger values, and Kolmogorov entropies, tending to constant positive values, were determined by numerical evaluation for the examined states of the system. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.