A novel method based on the pseudo-orbits to calculate the largest Lyapunov exponent from chaotic equations.

To reduce parameter error caused by human factors and ensure the accuracy of the largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE) obtained from chaotic equations, this paper proposes a simple method based on two nearby pseudo-orbits. First, a point is selected from a solution trajectory of chaotic equation by the roundoff error. Second, the selected point is used as an initial condition to solve the same equation to obtain another solution trajectory. Third, the evolution distance of the two solution trajectories is calculated. Finally, the LLE is the slope of the linear region in the curve of the track distance of the natural algorithm. Our method has been successfully applied to simulate five well-known chaotic systems and some non-chaotic systems. The results show that, compared with other traditional methods, the proposed method is efficient, simple, and robust without reconstructing phase space and computing the Jacobian matrix.