Generalized entropies of chaotic maps and flows: A unified approach

A thermodynamic study of nonlinear dynamical systems, based on the orbits' return times to the elements of a generating partition, is proposed. Its grand canonical nature makes it suitable for application to both maps and flows, including autonomous ones. When specialized to the evaluation of the generalized entropies K(q), this technique reproduces a well-known formula for the metric entropy K(1) and clarifies the relationship between a flow and the associated Poincare maps, beyond the straightforward case of periodically forced nonautonomous systems. Numerical estimates of the topological and metric entropy are presented for the Lorenz and Rossler systems. The analysis has been carried out exclusively by embedding scalar time series, ignoring any further knowledge about the systems, in order to illustrate its usefulness for experimental signals as well. Approximations to the generating partitions have been constructed by locating the unstable periodic orbits of the systems up to order 9. The results agree with independent estimates obtained from suitable averages of the local expansion rates along the unstable manifolds. (c) 1997 American Institute of Physics.