Hyperbolic Chaos of Turing Patterns

Abstract

We consider time evolution of Turing patterns in an extended system governed by an equation of the Swift-Hohenberg type, where due to an external periodic parameter modulation longwave and shortwave patterns with length scales related as 1:3 emerge in succession. We show theoretically and demonstrate numerically that the spatial phases of the patterns, being observed stroboscopically, are governed by an expanding circle map, so that the corresponding chaos of Turing patterns is hyperbolic, associated with a strange attractor of the Smale-Williams solenoid type. This chaos is shown to be robust with respect to variations of parameters and boundary conditions.