A simple multi-scroll hyperchaotic system

We propose a simple autonomous hyperchaotic system that can generate multi-scroll attractors. The proposed system has a canonical structure, one control parameter, and a switching-type nonlinearity. If multiple breakpoints are added to the system nonlinearity, multi-scroll behavior can be obtained. We numerically demonstrate hyperchaotic behavior of the proposed system, under different nonlinearities, as its control parameter is changed. Furthermore, we study hyperchaos in the proposed system when it assumes a fractional order, and demonstrate that hyperchaotic behavior can be obtained in systems less than fourth order. Throughout the study, hyperchaos is verified by examining the Lyapunov spectrum, where the presence of multiple positive Lyapunov exponents in the spectrum is indicative of hyperchaos. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.