Experimentally Viable Techniques for Accessing Coexisting Attractors Correlated with Lyapunov Exponents

Universal, predictive attractor patterns configured by Lyapunov exponents (LEs) as a function of the control parameter are shown to characterize periodic windows in chaos just as in attractors, using a coherent model of the laser with injected signal. One such predictive pattern, the symmetric-like bubble, foretells of an imminent bifurcation. With a slight decrease in the gain parameter, we find the symmetric-like bubble changes to a curved trajectory of two equal LEs in one attractor, while an increase in the gain reverses this process in another attractor. We generalize the power-shift method for accessing coexisting attractors or periodic windows by augmenting the technique with an interim parameter shift that optimizes attractor retrieval. We choose the gain as our parameter to interim shift. When interim gain-shift results are compared with LE patterns for a specific gain, we find critical points on the LE spectra where the attractor is unlikely to survive the gain shift. Noise and lag effects obscure the power shift minimally for large domain attractors. Small domain attractors are less accessible. The power-shift method in conjunction with the interim parameter shift is attractive because it can be experimentally applied without significant or long-lasting modifications to the experimental system.