Chaos of time-varying discrete dynamical systems

This paper is concerned with chaos of time-varying (i.e. non-autonomous) discrete systems in metric spaces. Some basic concepts are introduced for general time-varying systems, including periodic point, coupled-expansion for transitive matrix, uniformly topological equiconjugacy, and three definitions of chaos, i.e. chaos in the sense of Devaney and Wiggins, respectively, and in a strong sense of Li–Yorke. An interesting observation is that a finite-dimensional linear time-varying system can be chaotic in the original sense of Li–Yorke, but cannot have chaos in the strong sense of Li–Yorke, nor in the sense of Devaney in a set containing infinitely many points, and nor in the sense of Wiggins in a set starting from which all the orbits are bounded. A criterion of chaos in the original sense of Li–Yorke is established for finite-dimensional linear time-varying systems. Some basic properties of topological conjugacy are discussed. In particular, it is shown that topological conjugacy alone cannot guarantee two topologically conjugate time-varying systems to have the same topological properties in general. In addition, a criterion of chaos induced by strict coupled-expansion for a certain irreducible transitive matrix is established, under which the corresponding nonlinear system is proved chaotic in the strong sense of Li–Yorke. Two illustrative examples are finally provided with computer simulations for illustration.