Double Crises in Two-Parameter Dynamical Systems

A crisis is a sudden discontinuous change in a chaotic attractor as a system parameter is varied. We investigate phenomena observed when two parameters of a dissipative system are varied simultaneously, following a crisis along a curve in the parameter plane. Two such curves intersect at a point we call a double crisis vertex. The phenomena we study include the double crisis vertex at which an interior and a boundary crisis coincide, and related forms of double crisis. We show how an experimenter can infer a crisis from observations of other related crises at a vertex.