Exactly solvable chaos in an electromechanical oscillator

Abstract

A novel electromechanical chaotic oscillator is described that admits an exact analytic solution. The oscillator is a hybrid dynamical system with governing equations that include a linear second order ordinary differential equation with negative damping and a discrete switching condition that controls the oscillatory fixed point. The system produces provably chaotic oscillations with a topological structure similar to either the Lorenz butterfly or Rössler's folded-band oscillator depending on the configuration. Exact solutions are written as a linear convolution of a fixed basis pulse and a sequence of discrete symbols. We find close agreement between the exact analytical solutions and the physical oscillations. Waveform return maps for both configurations show equivalence to either a shift map or tent map, proving the chaotic nature of the oscillations.