1. Fundamentals. 1.1. Dynamical systems. 1.2. State space. 1.3. Dissipation. 1.4. Limit cycles. 1.5. Chaos and strange attractors. 1.6. Poincaré sections and fractals. 1.7. Conservative chaos. 1.8. Two-toruses and quasiperiodicity. 1.9. Largest Lyapunov exponent. 1.10. Lyapunov exponent spectrum. 1.11. Attractor dimension. 1.12. Chaotic transients. 1.13. Intermittency. 1.14. Basins of attraction. 1.15. Numerical methods. 1.16. Elegance -- 2. Periodically forced systems. 2.1. Van der Pol oscillator. 2.2. Rayleigh oscillator. 2.3. Rayleigh oscillator variant. 2.4. Duffing oscillator. 2.5. Quadratic oscillators. 2.6. Piecewise-linear oscillators. 2.7. Signum oscillators. 2.8. Exponential oscillators. 2.9. Other undamped oscillators. 2.10. Velocity forced oscillators. 2.11. Parametric oscillators. 2.12. Complex oscillators -- 3. Autonomous dissipative systems. 3.1. Lorenz system. 3.2. Diffusionless Lorenz system. 3.3. Rs̈sler system. 3.4. Other quadratic systems. 3.5. Jerk systems. 3.6. Circulant systems. 3.7. Other systems -- 4. Autonomous Conservative Systems. 4.1. Nosé-Hoover oscillator. 4.2. Nosé-Hoover variants. 4.3. Jerk systems. 4.4. Circulant systems -- 5. Low-dimension systems (D3). 5.1. Dixon system. 5.2. Dixon variants. 5.3. Logarithmic case. 5.4. Other cases -- 6. High-dimensional systems (D3). 6.1. Periodically forced systems. 6.2. Master-slave oscillators. 6.3. Mutually coupled nonlinear oscillators. 6.4. Hamiltonian systems. 6.5. Anti-Newtonian systems. 6.6. Hyperjerk systems. 6.7. Hyperchaotic systems. 6.8. Autonomous complex systems. 6.9. Lotka-Volterra systems. 6.10. Artificial neural networks -- 7. Circulant systems. 7.1. Lorenz-Emanuel system. 7.2. Lotka-Volterra systems. 7.3. Antisymmetric quadratic system. 7.4. Quadratic ring system. 7.5. Cubic ring system. 7.6. Hyperlabyrinth system. 7.7. Circulant neural networks. 7.8. Hyperviscous ring. 7.9. Rings of oscillators. 7.10. Star systems -- 8. Spatiotemporal systems. 8.1. Numerical methods. 8.2. Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation. 8.3. Kuramoto-Sivashinsky variants. 8.4. Chaotic traveling waves. 8.5. Continuum ring systems. 8.6. Traveling wave variants -- 9. Time-delay systems. 9.1. Delay differential equations. 9.2. Mackey-Glass equation. 9.3. Ikeda DDE. 9.4. Sinusoidal DDE. 9.5. Polynomial DDE. 9.6. Sigmoidal DDE. 9.7. Signum DDE. 9.8. Piecewise-linear DDEs. 9.9. Asymmetric logistic DDE with continuous delay -- 10. Chaotic electrical circuits. 10.1. Circuit elegance. 10.2. Forced relaxation oscillator. 10.3. Autonomous relaxation oscillator. 10.4. Coupled relaxation oscillators. 10.5. Forced diode resonator. 10.6. Saturating inductor circuit. 10.7. Forced piecewise-linear circuit. 10.8. Chua's circuit. 10.9. Nishio's circuit. 10.10. Wien-bridge oscillator. 10.11. Jerk circuits. 10.12. Master-slave oscillator. 10.13. Ring of oscillators. 10.14. Delay-line oscillator

Fractals are intricate geometrical forms that contain miniature copies of themselves on ever smaller scales. This colorful book describes methods for producing an endless variety of fractal art using a computer program that searches through millions of equations looking for those few that can produce images having aesthetic appeal. Over a hundred examples of such images are included with a link to the software that produced these images, and can also produce many more similar fractals. The underlying mathematics of the process is also explained in detail.Other books by the author that could be of interest to the reader are Elegant Chaos: Algebraically Simple Chaotic Flows (J C Sprott, 2010) and Elegant Circuits: Simple Chaotic Oscillators (J C Sprott and W J Thio, 2020).

A recent development is the discovery that simple systems of equations can have chaotic solutions in which small changes in initial conditions have a large effect on the outcome, rendering the corresponding experiments effectively irreproducible and unpredictable. An earlier book in this sequence, Elegant Chaos: Algebraically Simple Chaotic Flows provided several hundred examples of such systems, nearly all of which are purely mathematical without any obvious connection with actual physical processes and with very limited discussion and analysis.In this book, we focus on a much smaller subset of such models, chosen because they simulate some common or important physical phenomenon, usually involving the motion of a limited number of point-like particles, and we discuss these models in much greater detail. As with the earlier book, the chosen models are the mathematically simplest formulations that exhibit the phenomena of interest, and thus they are what we consider 'elegant.'Elegant models, stripped of unnecessary detail while maximizing clarity, beauty, and simplicity, occupy common ground bordering both real-world modeling and aesthetic mathematical analyses. A computational search led one of us (JCS) to the same set of differential equations previously used by the other (WGH) to connect the classical dynamics of Newton and Hamilton to macroscopic thermodynamics. This joint book displays and explores dozens of such relatively simple models meeting the criteria of elegance, taste, and beauty in structure, style, and consequence.This book should be of interest to students and researchers who enjoy simulating and studying complex particle motions with unusual dynamical behaviors. The book assumes only an elementary knowledge of calculus. The systems are initial-value iterated maps and ordinary differential equations but they must be solved numerically. Thus for readers a formal differential equations course is not at all necessary, of little value and limited use.

Chaos is the study of the underlying determinism in the seemingly random phenomena that occur all around us. One of the best experimental demonstrations of chaos occurs in electrical circuits when the parameters are chosen carefully. We will show you how to construct such chaotic circuits for use in your own studies and demonstrations while teaching you the basics of chaos.This book should be of interest to researchers and hobbyists looking for a simple way to produce a chaotic signal. It should also be useful to students and their instructors as an engaging way to learn about chaotic dynamics and electronic circuits. The book assumes only an elementary knowledge of calculus and the ability to understand a schematic diagram and the components that it contains.You will get the most out of this book if you can construct the circuits for yourself. There is no substitute for the thrill and insight of seeing the output of a circuit you built unfold as the trajectory wanders in real time across your oscilloscope screen. A goal of this book is to inspire and delight as well as to teach.

This book was mostly written by a machine that was programmed to search a system of equations for chaotic solutions, simplify the equations to the extent possible, analyze the behavior, produce figures, and write the accompanying text. The equations are coupled autonomous ordinary differential equations with three variables and at least one nonlinearity. Fifty simple systems are included. Some are old and familiar; others are relatively new and unknown. They are chosen to illustrate by simple example most of dynamical behaviors that can occur in low-dimensional chaotic systems.There is no substitute for the thrill and insight of seeing the solution of a simple equation unfold as the trajectory wanders in real time across your computer screen using a program of your own making. A goal of this book is to inspire and delight as well as to teach. It provides a wealth of examples ripe for further study and extension, and it offers a glimpse of a future when artificial intelligence supplants many of the mundane tasks that accompany dynamical systems research and becomes a true and tireless collaborator.

This heavily illustrated book collects in one source most of the mathematically simple systems of differential equations whose solutions are chaotic. It includes the historically important systems of van der Pol, Duffing, Ueda, Lorenz, Rössler, and many others, but it goes on to show that there are many other systems that are simpler and more elegant. Many of these systems have been only recently discovered and are not widely known. Most cases include plots of the attractor and calculations of the spectra of Lyapunov exponents. Some important cases include graphs showing the route to chaos. The book includes many cases not previously published as well as examples of simple electronic circuits that exhibit chaos.No existing book thus far focuses on mathematically elegant chaotic systems. This book should therefore be of interest to chaos researchers looking for simple systems to use in their studies, to instructors who want examples to teach and motivate students, and to students doing independent study.

This book presents detailed descriptions of chaos for continuous-time systems. It is the first-ever book to consider chaos as an input for differential and hybrid equations. Chaotic sets and chaotic functions are used as inputs for systems with attractors: equilibrium points, cycles and tori. The findings strongly suggest that chaos theory can proceed from the theory of differential equations to a higher level than previously thought. The approach selected is conducive to the in-depth analysis of different types of chaos. The appearance of deterministic chaos in neural networks, economics and mechanical systems is discussed theoretically and supported by simulations. As such, the book offers a valuable resource for mathematicians, physicists, engineers and economists studying nonlinear chaotic dynamics.