Cascade solutions of the Lorenz system

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a series of cascade solutions in the Lorenz system's parameter space, revealing their self-similar and fractal properties, and highlights their significance in understanding the system's complex dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of infinite cascade solutions in the Lorenz system, expanding the understanding of its global solution structure and symmetry properties.

Findings

Discovered infinite cascade solutions in the Lorenz system.

Revealed self-similar and fractal features of solutions.

Showed coexistence of odd and even solutions in certain regions.

Abstract

The Lorenz system is a milestone model of nonlinear dynamic systems. However, we report in this Letter that important information of the global solutions in the parameter space may still miss: there is a series of cascade solutions in certain regions of the parameter space that has not been found before. We denote them as Si, where i=1,2,3,..., can tend to be infinite. The solution S1 is the fundamental solution having been studied intensively, the second one has also been reported and studied partially before. We conduct a detailed study on other solutions to reveal their special self-similar features, which enable us to find that solutions of i=1,3,5,..., and solutions with i=2,4,6,..., have different symmetry, but in each series all of the solutions are qualitatively similar after properly rescaled. The phase diagram of cascade solutions is shown in the parameter space. Odd and even solutions may coexist in certain parameter regions, in which case their basins of attraction show fractal geometry. With high-order solutions, the Lorenz system is shown analog to an excitable system. An ordinary differential equation existing a series of infinite cascade solutions has never been reported before.