Roundoff-induced attractors and reversibility in conservative two-dimensional maps

TL;DR

This study investigates how numerical precision affects the appearance of pseudo-attractors and reversibility in conservative 2D maps, revealing that these effects diminish with increased precision and are linked to map properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of numerical precision on pseudo-attractors and reversibility in conservative maps, connecting these phenomena to map structure and entropy production.

Findings

Pseudo-attractors appear due to finite numerical precision.

Increasing precision reduces pseudo-attractors and reversibility effects.

Entropy production rate matches Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy in the baker map.

Abstract

We numerically study two conservative two-dimensional maps, namely the baker map (whose Lyapunov exponent is known to be positive), and a typical one (exhibiting a vanishing Lyapunov exponent) chosen from the generalized shift family of maps introduced by C. Moore [Phys Rev Lett {\bf 64}, 2354 (1990)] in the context of undecidability. We calculated the time evolution of the entropy $S_q \equiv \frac{1-\sum_{i=1}^Wp_i^q}{q-1}$ ($S_1=S_{BG}\equiv -\sum_{i=1}^Wp_i \ln p_i$), and exhibited the dramatic effect introduced by numerical precision. Indeed, in spite of being area-preserving maps, they present, {\it well after} the initially concentrated ensemble has spread virtually all over the phase space, unexpected {\it pseudo-attractors} (fixed-point like for the baker map, and more complex structures for the Moore map). These pseudo-attractors, and the apparent time (partial) reversibility they provoke, gradually disappear for increasingly large precision. In the case of the Moore map, they are related to zero Lebesgue-measure effects associated with the frontiers existing in the definition of the map. In addition to the above, and consistently with the results by V. Latora and M. Baranger [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 82}, 520 (1999)], we find that the rate of the far-from-equilibrium entropy production of baker map, numerically coincides with the standard Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of this strongly chaotic system.