On the realization of the Hunt-Ott strange nonchaotic attractor in a physical system

The object of investigation is a system consisting of two coupled nonautonomous van der Pol oscillators the characteristics frequencies of which differ by a factor of 2. The system is subjected to an external action in the form of slow periodic modulation of an oscillation-controlling parameter and also to an additional action at a frequency that is in an irrational relation with the modulation frequency. It is shown that the variation of the oscillation phase over a modulation period can be approximated by a 2D map on a torus that has a robust (structurally stable) Hunt-Ott strange nonchaotic attractor. Calculations of the quantitative characteristics of the attractor corresponding to the initial set of nonautonomous coupled oscillators (such as phase sensitivity exponent, structures and scaling of rational approximations, as well as Lyapunov exponents and their parameter dependence) confirm the presence of the Hunt-Ott strange nonchaotic attractor.