Symmetric
Chaos
273
determine the critical values can form trapping regions, confining the
dynamics. (Observe how the cusped triangle is folded up and laid
down within itself.) If no stable regular dynamics is possible within
such
a
region, then
a
strange attractor must be present; moreover,
it is likely to encounter the fold lines along parts of the edge
of
that
region.
So
critical values provide
a
plausible mechanisms
for
the
formation of attractors, especially strange attractors.
For
mappings in the plane it often seems
to
be the case that the
critical
set,
or
its first
or
second iterate, lie very close to any attractors
that occur. One question that this raises
is
the following: when can
we obtain the attractor by iterating the critical set? Clearly this
cannot happen for diffeomorphisms; but the numerical evidence is
that it happens for
a
very broad class of maps.
4.3
Torus
Maps
This section describes preliminary stages
of
some joint work with
Golubitsky, which was stimulated by
a
morning television programme
in Minneapolis on computer design
of
textiles. An especially rich
source of symmetric strange attractors arises from equivariant torus
maps
f
:
T2
-,
T2
where
T2
is the 2-torus. Here we discuss the
D
4
-equi var i
an
t
family
of
maps
(A
+
a
cos(2sy)) sin(2nz)
+
psin(4rz)
+
rsin(6rz)
cos(4ny)
+
Az
(A
+
a
cos(27rc)) sin(2ny)
+
psin(4sy)
+
7
sin(6sy)
cos(4rz)
+
Ay
(4)
where
a,
P,7,
A
are red
parameters and
k
is
an
integer parameter.
The form of this mapping is deduced from
a
Fourier expansion, to-
gether with linear terms, by applying the generators of the symmetry
group
D4
of the unit square defining
a
fundamental domain for the
torus. Only ‘low order’ terms of the Fourier series are retained here.
We content ourselves with some examples revealing the extraor-
dinary richness of these maps.
The sequence in Figure
8
illustrates
a
symmetry-increasing crisis.
In (a) we
see
one attractor, symmetric about
a
diagonal. In (b) we
see
its four conjugates. In (c) not all of the attractor has yet appeared,
because
of
intermittency. The figure shows three pairs of
sets,
each