Dissipative homoclinic loops of two‐dimensional maps and strange attractors with one direction of instability

We prove that when subjected to periodic forcing of the form certain two‐dimensional vector fields with dissipative homoclinic loops generate strange attractors with Sinai‐Ruelle‐Bowen measures for a set of forcing parameters (μ, ρ, ω) of positive Lebesgue measure. The proof extends ideas of Afraimovich and Shilnikov and applies the recent theory of rank 1 maps developed by Wang and Young. We prove a general theorem and then apply this theorem to an explicit model: a forced Duffing equation of the form © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.