Exploring Strange Nonchaotic Attractors Through Jacobian Elliptic Functions

We demonstrate the effectiveness of Jacobian elliptic functions (JEFs) for inquiring into the reshaping effect of quasiperiodic forces in nonlinear nonautonomous systems exhibiting strange nonchaotic attractors (SNAs). Specifically, we characterize analytically and numerically some reshaping-induced transitions starting from SNAs in the context of quasiperiodically forced systems. We found similar scenarios of SNAs from the analysis of two representative examples: a quasiperiodically forced damped pendulum and a two-dimensional map. This clearly well-suited and advantageous use of the JEFs, which in their own right lie at the heart of nonlinear physics, may encourage students at intermediate university levels to study them in depth.