Self-Excited and Hidden Attractors Found Simultaneously in a Modified Chua's Circuit

By replacing the Chua's diode in Chua's circuit with a first-order hybrid diode circuit, a fourth-order modified Chua's circuit is presented. The circuit has an unstable zero saddle point and two nonzero saddle-foci. By Routh-Hurwitz criterion, it is found that in a narrow parameter region, the two nonzero saddle-foci have a transition from unstable to stable saddle-foci, leading to generations of self-excited and hidden attractors in the modified Chua's circuit simultaneously, which have not been previously reported. Complex dynamical behaviors are investigated both numerically and experimentally. The results indicate that the proposed circuit exhibits complicated nonlinear phenomena including self-excited attractors, coexisting self-excited attractors, hidden attractors, and coexisting hidden attractors.