International Conference on Computational Sciences and Its Applications ICCSA 2008
Matlab Toolbox and GUI for Analyzing One-Dimensional Chaotic Maps
Akemi Gálvez Tomida
Department of Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences, University of Cantabria, Spain
galveza@unican.es
Abstract
Although the notion of chaos is usually associated
with continuous systems, discrete systems can also exhibit
chaotic behavior. In fact, discrete systems have less require-
ments than their continuous counterparts to show chaotic
regime, as chaos can be found in simple one-dimensional
non-invertible maps. This paper deals specifically with this
last kind of systems. To this aim, the author introduces a
new Matlab toolbox and GUI (Graphical User Interface)
providing the user with a suitable toolkit for a complete
analysis of those systems by computer. The paper describes
the software developed to reach these goals, its main fea-
tures and components and illustrates its performance by ap-
plying it to the analysis of important issues regarding one-
dimensional maps, such as the calculation of fixed points,
the study of their stability and the representation of their bi-
furcation diagram and Lyapunov exponents, cobweb plots
and phase space graphs for various dimensions. In our
opinion, the tool described here is very useful in order to
carry out such calculations in an efficient and simple way.
1. Introduction
Although the nonlinear systems and their wealth of
chaotic behaviors are known for a long time, only with
the impressive developments in hardware and software hap-
pened during the last few decades we have been able to an-
alyze them at full extent. It is well-known that the behavior
of nonlinear systems is much more complicated than that
of linear systems. In fact, even the simplest chaotic sys-
tems exhibit a number of different behaviors that can only
be fully analyzed with the help of powerful hardware and
software resources. Because of that, the analysis of chaotic
systems has been a classical subject of research in the realm
of Computational Science.
The range of different phenomena associated with the
nonlinear systems is extremely varied. Chaos is ubiqui-
tous in nature: chaotic behaviors can be found in almost
any field, ranging from chemical reactions to electronic cir-
978-0-7695-3243-1/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ICCSA.2008.7
cuits and lasers, meteorology, ecology, etc. Nonlinearity
appears in both discrete and continuous systems, which are
described by iterated functions (or maps) and (either or-
dinary or partial) differential equations (or flows), respec-
tively. That means that the accurate analysis of such chaotic
systems requires a bulk of specialized mathematical tools
and techniques, designed to account for the kind of system
involved. In terms of computer software, this means that we
need very powerful computer programs and packages which
are, at their own, extraordinarily resource-demanding.
The list of numerical, symbolic and graphical require-
ments is so large that developers are now looking at the
computer algebra systems (CAS) as the key to tackle this
issue. As a consequence, there is an increasing interest on
CAS-based programs for dynamical systems. Some exam-
ples include [1, 2, 5] for Matlab, [4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 17] for
Mathematica and [18] for Maple. In this context, the author
presented last year a numerical-symbolic Matlab program
for the analysis of three-dimensional chaotic systems [3].
The program provides the users with a GUI (Graphical User
Interface) that allows them to analyze (either symbolically
or numerically) any 3D flow with a minimal input, namely,
the symbolic ordinary differential equations describing the
system and (sometimes) some relevant parameters.
Although the notion of chaos is very often associated
with nonlinear continuous systems, discrete systems can
also exhibit chaotic behavior. In fact, low-dimensional
maps contain most of the phenomena commonly encoun-
tered in higher-dimensional continuous systems. While, ac-
cording to the Poincaré-Bendixson theorem, a strange at-
tractor can only arise in a continuous dynamical system
if it has three or more dimensions, no such restriction ap-
plies to discrete systems, which can exhibit strange attrac-
tors in two or even one dimensional systems. In fact, one-
dimensional non-invertible maps are the simplest systems
capable of chaotic motion. Consequently, one-dimensional
maps are used as a very convenient starting point for the
study of chaos.
In this paper, a new Matlab toolbox and GUI for analyz-
ing one-dimensional chaotic maps is introduced. The struc-
ture of this paper is as follows: in Section 2.1 the archi-
321
tecture of our program and its main components are briefly
discussed. Some implementation issues are briefly reported
in Section 2.2. Then, Section 3 describes the main features
of the program through its application to the analysis of
some issues regarding one-dimensional maps: fixed points
and their stability in Section 3.1, bifurcation diagrams and
Lyapunov exponents in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 respectively,
cobweb plots in Section 3.4 and phase space graphs in Sec-
tion 3.5. For studying all these items, different 1D-maps are
used. The conclusions and some further remarks close the
paper.

2. Program Architecture and Implementation

2.1. Program Architecture

The program introduced in this paper for the analysis of

one-dimensional chaotic maps consists basically of two ma-
jor components:

1. a numerical-symbolic toolbox: a collection of com-

mands, functions and routines implemented to perform
the numerical, symbolic and graphical tasks.

2. a graphical user interface (GUI): this component is re-

sponsible for input/output windowing and smooth in-
teraction with the user.
At its turn, the toolbox is comprised of three different
modules, according to the processes (numerical, symbolic
and graphical) to be carried out:
a) a set of numerical libraries containing the implemen-
tation of the commands, functions and routines for the
numerical tasks. They have been implemented by us-
ing the native Matlab programming language and tak-
ing advantage of the large collection of numerical rou-
tines available in this system. Usually, these Matlab
routines provide extensive control on a number of dif-
ferent options and are fully optimized to offer the high-
est level of performance. In fact, this is one of the
major strengths of the program and one of the main
reasons to choose Matlab as its optimal programming
environment.
Figure 1. Screenshot of a typical window of
the GUI for our toolbox
symbolic object-string conversion or symbol replace-
ment and assignment) have also been used for sym-
bolic tasks, as it will be shown later on.
c) some graphical commands. The powerful Matlab
graphical capabilities exceed those commonly avail-
able in other CAS such as Mathematica and Maple.
Although our current needs do not require to apply
them at full extent, they avoid the users the tedious
and time-consuming task to implement many routines
for graphical output by themselves. Some nice view-
ing features such as 3D rotation, zooming in and out,
labeling, scaling, coloring and others are also automat-
ically inherited from the Matlab windows system.

b) a set of symbolic routines and functions. They have
been implemented by using the Symbolic Math Tool-
box that provides access to several Maple routines for
symbolic tasks. This symbolic module is more impor-
tant than it might seem at first sight; for instance, sys-
tem equations are inputted symbolically so that some
functional operators (such as derivatives) can be ef-
fectively applied. Further, some additional operators
(like those for string manipulation, forward/backward
Although this toolbox is enough to fulfill almost all our
computation needs, potential end-users might be challenged
for using it properly unless they are really proficient on
Matlab’s syntax and functionalities and the toolbox rou-
tines. This kind of limitations can be overcome by creating
a GUI; a well-designed GUI uses readily recognizable vi-
sual cues to help the user navigate efficiently through infor-
mation. Fortunately, Matlab provides a mechanism to gen-
erate GUIs by using the so-called guide (GUI development

322
environment). This feature is not commonly available in
many other CAS so far. Although its implementation re-
quires - for complex interfaces - a high level of expertise,
it allows end-users to deal with the toolbox with a minimal
knowledge and input, thus facilitating its use and dissemi-
nation.
Based on the previous discussion, a GUI for the already-
generated toolbox has been implemented. Figure 1 shows
an example of a typical window. It allows an effective use
of powerful interface tools designed according to the type of
values being displayed (e.g., drop-down menu for a choice
list, radio buttons for boolean options, text boxes for dis-
playing messages, dialog boxes for input/output user inter-
action, etc.) In general, functions associated with each topic
under analysis have been grouped and arranged in a rectan-
gular area with an indicative title on the top, such as: fixed
point analysis, bifurcation diagram, Lyapunov exponents,
cobweb plot and phase space graph (see Figure 1 and sub-
sequent description in Section 3). Additional functionalities
have been provided in hidden menus or in separate windows
which can be invoked at will if needed so as to keep the
main window streamlined and uncluttered. For instance, all
graphical output is displayed in separate windows so that
the information is better organized and “flows” in a natural
and intuitive way. As a result, this GUI presents an interface
which is both aesthetic and very functional to the user.
Figure 2. Fixed points and their stability for
the logistic map
2.2. Implementation Issues

Regarding the implementation, this program has been

developed by the author in Matlab [14] v2007b on Win-
dows XP operating system by using a PC with Intel Core
2 Duo processor at 2.4 GHz. and 2 GB of RAM. However,
the program supports many different platforms, such as PCs
(with Windows 9x, 2000, NT, Me, XP and Vista) and UNIX
workstations. A version for Apple Macintosh with Mac OS
X system is also available provided that X11 (the imple-
mentation of the X Window System that makes it possible
to run X11-based applications in Mac OS X) is properly in-
stalled and configured. Figures in this paper correspond to
the PC platform version.
The graphical tasks are performed by using the Matlab
GUI for the higher-level functions (windowing, menus, or
input) while the built-in graphics Matlab commands are ap-
plied for rendering purposes. The numerical kernel has been
implemented in the native Matlab programming language,
and the symbolic kernel has been created by using the com-
mands of the Symbolic Math Toolbox.
3. Some Illustrative Examples
In this section the main features of the program are de-
scribed through its application to some illustrative examples
of one-dimensional chaotic maps.
3.1. Fixed Points and Stability
Given a map defined by a function f (x), a fixed point
of f (x) is a point that is mapped to itself by the function.
In other words, x∗ is a fixed point of the function f if and
only if f (x∗ ) = x∗ . For instance, consider the logistic map
defined by the expression:
xn+1 = λxn (1 − xn ) (1)
where n ∈ IN and λ is a system parameter. The logistic map
became popular following a seminal paper by the biologist
Robert May in 1976 [15], where he introduced the discrete
version of a demographic model due to Verhulst. Roughly,
xn ∈ [0, 1] represents the population at year n, evolving
from x0 , the initial population value. Depending on the λ
value, the system evolves among a number of different sit-
uations, from the population eventually dying to stabilizing
or changing chaotically (see Section 3.2 for more details).
The logistic map can be analyzed by using the toolbox
and GUI introduced in this paper. To do so, we must enter
the system equation as shown in Figure 2. Note that the

323
 Figure 3. Bifurcation diagram of the logistic Figure 4. Close up of Fig. 3 on the interval
map on the interval (0, 4) (3.5, 4)

equation is given in a mathematical-looking way similar to

Eq. (1) so as the expression can be subsequently processed
for further symbolic-numerical calculations. Then, we can
compute the fixed points, which means to solve the equation
f (x) = x (or equivalently, f (x) − x = 0 so that the solve
command can be applied directly onto the expression).
We can also analyze the stability of those fixed points.
An attractive fixed point (or stable fixed point) of a function
f is a fixed point x∗A of f such that for any value of x in
the domain that is close enough to x∗A , the iterated function
sequence converges to x∗A . Conversely, iteration may give
the appearance of points diverging away from a fixed point;
this would be the case for repulsive fixed point (or unstable
fixed point). To perform such stability analysis, we consider
the eigenvalue of the fixed point, given by:
 
df (x)
φ= (2) Figure 5. Close up of Fig. 4 on the interval
dx x=x∗
(3.826, 3.86)
According to [13], the fixed point is stable (or attractive)
if |φ| < 1, neutral if |φ| = 1, unstable (or repulsive) if
|φ| > 1, and superstable (or superattractive) if φ = 0.
Figure 2 shows the stability analysis performed for the or periodic orbits) of such system as a function of a system
λ−1 parameter, let’s say p. It is computed as follows (see [16]
logistic map. The fixed points are: x = 0 and x = . for details):
λ
The stability of such points is established according to the
previous paragraph, as shown in the text box in Fig. 2. 1. Set p = p0 /initial value of the system parameter, p;
for instance, λ = 0 in Fig. 3 or λ = 3.5 in Fig. 4
3.2. Bifurcation Diagrams 2. Set x0 ∈ Im(f ) /initial value of x0 ; for the logistic
map, any value on the interval (0, 1) is admisible
Given a dynamical system, its bifurcation diagram
shows the possible long-term values (equilibria/fixed points 3. Iterate the map 500 times

324
 Figure 6. Bifurcation diagram of the Mandel-
brot map on the interval (−2, 0)

4. Iterate the map another 1000 times (starting from x500 )

and plot the resulting 1000 values of x

5. Increase λ by a small amount and return to step 2. The

procedure is repeated until the final parameter value is
reached. /For instance, until λ = 4 in Figs. 3, 4 and
7, λ = 3.86 in Fig. 5, c = 0 in Fig. 6 or µ = 1.08 in
Fig.8.

Note that an initial transient is usually rejected to retain

the asymptotic behavior of the system. This is the reason to
discard the first 500 iterations in our plot (step 3). Note also
that only the stable solutions are shown here, but there are
many other unstable solutions which are not shown in this
diagram.
Figure 3 shows the bifurcation diagram of the logistic
map for λ ∈ (0, 4). The initial input consists of the initial
point x0 and the initial and final values of the system param-
eter. Additional settings such as the number of iterations for
the transient and for the final plot are subsumed into specific
menus in the upper toolbar. The corresponding graphical
diagram is displayed in a separate window, where interac-
tive tools for graphical manipulations are automatically pro-
vided. The bifurcation parameter λ is shown on the horizon-
tal axis of the plot and the vertical axis shows the possible
long-term population values of the logistic function. From
Fig. 3, it can be seen that the behavior of the system changes
depending on the values of the system parameter. For val-
ues of λ ∈ (0, 3), the population settles to a fixed size over
the years. In particular, for λ ∈ (0, 1), the population will
eventually die, regardless the initial population, while for
λ ∈ (1, 3) the population will quickly stabilize on the value
Figure 7. Bifurcation diagram of the cubic
map on the interval (1, 4) for the initial con-
ditions x0 = 0.5 (top) and x0 = −0.5 (bottom)
λ−1
. This is a fixed point of the system. However, for
λ √
larger values of the parameter, λ ∈ (3, 1 + 6) two dif-
ferent points appear meaning that, under iteration, the sys-
tem will jump back and forth between these points. This is
called a period-2 orbit. For λ ∈ (3.45, 3.54) approximately,
the population oscillate between four values (period-4 or-
bit). Increasing λ beyond 3.54, the population will oscil-
late between 8 values, then 16, 32 and so on, following the
so-called period doubling bifurcation route to chaos. For
λc > 3.569... (often referred to as the accumulation point),
the system will evolve under an infinite number of points
in a seemingly stochastic, or chaotic, way, although there
are still certain isolated values of λ that show non-chaotic

325

Figure 8. Bifurcation diagram of the Singer
map on the interval (0.9, 1.08)
behavior, with orbits of period-3 (for λ = 3.825), period-6,
and so on. They can be seen, for instance, in Fig. 4 where a
close up of Fig. 3 for λ ∈ (3.5, 4) is displayed.
The bifurcation diagram is a fractal: if you zoom in on
the above-mentioned value λ = 3.825 and focus on one
branch of the three, the situation nearby looks like a shrunk
and slightly distorted version of the whole diagram (see Fig.
5). The same is true for all other non-chaotic points. This is
an example of the deep and ubiquitous connection between
chaos and fractals.
Other example of chaotic one-dimensional map is the
Mandelbrot map, given by:
xn+1 = x2n + c (3)
where c is the system parameter. The Mandelbrot map is
basically conjugate of the logistic map. Figure 6 shows its
bifurcation diagram for the system parameter c ∈ (−2, 0),
which resembles that of the logistic map as regarded in the
opposite direction. For c ∈ (−2.0, 0.25) the system exhibits
bounded orbits, while they diverge to infinity otherwise.
An interesting scenario appears when the branches in the
bifurcation diagram do depend on the initial values of the
system variable, x0 . This happens, for instance, for the cu-
bic map, given by:
xn+1 = (1 − µ)xn + µx3n . (4)
rThis system has two fixed points of the form x1,2 =
µ−1
± , meaning that there is no single value to display
3µ
the whole bifurcation diagram. Figure 7 displays the two
326
bifurcation diagrams associated with this map, which are
obtained from two different initial conditions for the sys-
tem variable, namely x0 = 0.5 (top) and x0 = −0.5 (bot-
tom). As the reader can see, there are two missing branches
of the period-4 orbits in each diagram, so both pictures are
complementary each other.
Another interesting one-dimensional system is the
Singer map, described by:
xn+1 = µ(7.86xn − 23.31x2n + 28.75x3n − 13.30x4n ) (5)
where µ is the system parameter, which typically takes val-
ues on the interval (0.90, 1.08). In this case, the bifurcation
diagram, shown in Figure 8, exhibits the coexistence of a
stable fixed point until µ = 1.035... and a stable period-
2 orbit. Also, on the interval (0.99, 1.01) for µ a stable
period-1 and a stable period-2 orbits can also coexist. This
coexistence should however be understood as alternative,
since each situation corresponds to different initial condi-
tions, so that the system can take only one of them at the
same time.
3.3. Lyapunov Exponents
One of the most important trademarks of chaos is the
so-called sensitivity to initial conditions, meaning that two
initially closed arbitrary trajectories diverge exponentially
over the time. The Lyapunov exponent (LE) of a dynamical
system is the number that characterizes the rate of separa-
tion of these infinitesimally close trajectories.
Of course, the rate of separation can be different for dif-
ferent orientations of initial separation vector, leading to as
many Lyapunov exponents as the number of dimensions of
the phase space. Thus, for one-dimensional systems, only
one LE is obtained. In the case of discrete systems given
by xn+1 = f (µ, xn ), the LE, denoted onwards as δ, can be
computed as:
m
1 X
δ = lim Ln |f 0 (µ, x)| (6)
m→∞ m
j=0
where, in our computations, the limit to the infinity is re-
placed by the summation over a large set of iterations. The
practical implication of the LE is that it is a good indicator
of regular/chaotic behavior. In short, the LE is useful for
distinguishing among the various types of orbits:
• δ < 0: this value is characteristic of dissipative or non-
conservative systems. Such systems exhibit asymp-
totic stability; the more negative the exponent, the
greater the stability. Superstable fixed points and su-
perstable periodic points have a Lyapunov exponent of
δ = −∞.

Figure 9. (top) Lyapunov exponent of the lo-
gistic map on the interval (0, 4); (bottom)
close up on the interval (3.2, 4)
• δ = 0: The orbit is a neutral fixed point (or an even-
tually fixed point). A Lyapunov exponent of zero in-
dicates that the system is in some sort of steady state
mode. A physical system with this exponent is conser-
vative. Such systems exhibit Lyapunov stability.
• δ > 0: The orbit is unstable and chaotic. Nearby
points, no matter how close, will diverge to any arbi-
trary separation. All neighborhoods in the phase space
will eventually be visited. These points are said to be
unstable. Although the system is deterministic, there
is no order to the orbit that ensues.
Our program allows us to compute the Lyapunov expo-
nents in a very easy way; the initial input is given by the
327
Figure 10. Cobweb plot of the logistic map
for different values of the parameter: (top-
bottom, left-right): λ = 2.5; λ = 3.235; λ =
3.57; λ = 4
initial point for the system variable and the interval for the
system parameter. Other settings such as the number of it-
erations used for the calculation are internally handled at
the core of the numerical toolbox, according to a prescribed
error, which can be changed at will. Figure 9(top) depictes
the Lyapunov exponent of the logistic map for the system
parameter on the interval (0, 4). Comparison of this picture
with Figure 3 shows that negative values for the LE are an
indication of regular behavior, while positive values are as-
sociated with chaotic motion. Note also that the LE tends
to −∞ for λ = 2 meaning the existence of a superstable
fixed point. Figure 9(bottom) shows a magnification of the
figure on top for the interval (3.2, 4). We can see that the
LE is positive for λ > λc except by the existence of some
periodic windows, thus explaining very well the phenomena
previously observed in the bifurcation diagram.
3.4. Cobweb Plot
A cobweb plot is a graphical procedure especially suited
to analyze the qualitative behaviour of one-dimensional iter-
ated functions. Cobweb plots are useful because they allow
to determine the long-term evolution of an initial condition
under repeated application of a map. Algorithmically, the
plot consists of a diagonal line y = x and a curve represent-
ing the map y = f (x). To visualize the behaviour of the
system from an initial point x0 for a given parameter value,
the following steps are to be applied:
1. Find the point on the function curve with an x-
 Figure 11. Cobweb plot of the Singer map for
µ=1
coordinate of x0 . This leads to the coordinates
(x0 , f (x0 )).
2. Plot horizontally across from this point to the diagonal
line. This yields the coordinates (f (x0 ), f (x0 )).
3. Plot vertically from the point on the diagonal to the
function curve. The coordinates (f (x0 ), f (f (x0 ))) are
hereby returned.
4. Repeat from step 2 until reaching a prescribed amount
of iterations.
Figure 10 shows a matrix of four cobweb plots for the
logistic map and as many initial conditions. The first one,
for λ = 2.5 (top-left), displays an inward spiral leading to a
stable fixed point (conversely, an unstable fixed point corre-
sponds to an outward spiral). A period-2 orbit is represented
by a rectangle, like in Fig. 10 (top-right) with λ = 3.235.
Greater period cycles produce further, more complex closed
loops. A chaotic orbit would show a “filled out” area, indi-
cating an infinite number of non-repeating values. Figs. 10
(bottom) show two cases of chaotic orbits, for λ = 3.57
(left) λ = 4 (right). Note that the filled area is larger in the
second case, as shown in Fig. 4, where the filled vertical
line of the diagram increases on the interval (0, 1) as the
parameter goes to 4 from the left.
Figure 11 depicts the cobweb plot of the Singer map for
µ = 1. At this parameter value, the system stabilizes in a
periodic orbit (see also Fig. 8). However, the behavior of
this system strongly relies on our choice of the initial point
for the system variable, so other periodic behaviors for the
same system parameter can also be obtained.
328
Figure 12. (left-right) 1D, 2D and 3D phase
space graph of the systems: (top) logistic
map for λ = 4; (middle) cubic map for λ = 4;
(bottom) Singer map for µ = 1.07
3.5. Phase Space Graph
A very powerful strategy to analyze chaotic systems is
to use the so-called phase space graph. By this we mean
a collection of pictures associated with the orbit of a given
point x0 and embedded into different n-dimensional spaces.
For n = 1 we get the signal of the orbit, i.e. the sequence
of iterates {xn }n over the time. Such sequence is usually
called the time series. For n = 2 the graph is obtained by
representing the sequence of iterates {xn+1 } vs. {xn }, for
n = 3, we represent the sequence of iterates {xn+2 } vs.
{xn+1 } and {xn } and so on.
Figure 12 uses the phase space graph to analyze the
chaotic behavior of three discrete systems: the logistic map
(1) for λ = 4 (top), the cubic map (4) for λ = 4 (mid-
dle) and the Singer map (5), for µ = 1.07 (bottom). Left
column in Figure 12 shows the corresponding time series.
These pictures illustrate perfectly how the chaotic behavior
looks like.
As shown in Section 3.3, a characteristic of chaos is that
chaotic systems exhibit a great sensitivity to initial condi-
tions. A common source of such sensitivity to initial con-
ditions is that the map represents a repeated folding and
stretching of the space on which it is defined. For instance,
for the logistic map, the n = 2 phase space graph, rep-
resented in Fig. 12(top,middle), gives a two-dimensional
phase diagram of the logistic map showing the quadratic
curve of the difference equation (1). Similarly, central col-
umn of Fig. 12 displays the structure of the cubic curve and
the quartic curve in middle and bottom rows, respectively.
We can also embed the same sequence in a three-
dimensional phase space, in order to investigate the deeper
structure of the map. Fig. 12(top,right), demonstrates this,
showing how initially nearby points begin to diverge, partic-
ularly in those regions corresponding to the steeper sections
of the plot. Note also the complicated structure of the cu-
bic and Singer maps, given by the right column of Fig. 12,
middle and bottom respectively.
4. Conclusions and Further Remarks
This paper focuses on the problem of analyzing one-
dimensional discrete dynamical systems and their wealth
of different chaotic behaviors. In this work, a new Matlab
toolbox and GUI have been introduced, aimed at providing
end-users with a powerful computer tool to perform such
analysis. This tool has proven to be extremely useful in
order to carry out a number of computations (fixed points,
their stability, bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponents,
cobweb plots, phase space graphs for various dimensions)
in an efficient and simple way.
As above-mentioned, one practical application of 1D-
maps is that they exhibit most of the classical phenomena
associated with chaos. The advantage of using discrete
maps is that they don’t require the sophisticated mathemat-
ical machinery needed for continuous systems. In fact, dis-
crete systems are often used as a simplification of chaotic
flows via the so-called Poincaré map, given by the intersec-
tion of a periodic orbit in the state space of a continuous dy-
namical system with a certain lower dimensional subspace,
called the Poincaré section, transversal to the flow of the
system. More precisely, one considers a periodic orbit with
initial conditions on the Poincaré section and observes the
point at which this orbits first returns to the section, thus
the name first recurrence map. The transversality of the
Poincaré section basically means that periodic orbits start-
ing on the subspace flow through it and not parallel to it.
Such Poincaré map can be interpreted as a discrete
dynamical system with a state space that is one dimen-
sion smaller than the original continuous dynamical sys-
tem. Because it preserves many properties of periodic and
quasiperiodic orbits of the original system and has a lower
dimensional state space it is often used for analyzing the
original system. From this point of view, the present pro-
gram can also be applied to analyze continuous systems,
and might be used in combination with a previous program
reported in [3] and developed for continuous 3D flows.
Future works include the extension of this program to
the case of muldimensional discrete systems, and the im-
plementation of especialized routines for the control of
chaos [6, 7, 8] and the synchronization of chaotic systems
[9, 10, 11] for discrete maps through the Poincaré section.
329
Acknowledgments
This research has been supported by the Computer Science
National Program of the Spanish Ministry of Education and
Science, Project Ref. #TIN2006-13615 and the University
of Cantabria.
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