Experimental study of embedding of attractors in concentration space

Abstract

The embedding of attractors and their stable and unstable manifolds can be studied experimentally by controlled addition of chemical species to bring about a particular response. For stable small amplitude oscillations near a Hopf bifurcation from a steady state the embedding can be completely determined even in systems where two of the species are not observable. A quenching of the oscillations by dilution candetermine the steady state concentrations. A species that cannot quench the oscillations almost certainly cannot be an essential component of the oscillation. The method can be extended to a study of attractor associated with subharmonic and quasiperiodic bifurcations and of attractors corresponding to nonperiodic motion. We present preliminary results for a subharmonic bifurcation.