Abstract
We measured a stretched-exponential trap time distribution, exp[−(ttrap/τ0)β], over many decades in a one-dimensional array of coupled chaotic electronic elements just above a crisis-induced intermittency transition. This distribution is obtained by measuring the time an oscillator spends in the same state. There is strong spatial heterogeneity and individual sites display a dynamics ranging from near power law (β = 0) to near exponential (β = 1) while the global dynamics, given by a spatial average, remains stretched exponential. These results can be reproduced quantitatively with a one-dimensional coupled-map lattice and thus appear to be system independent. In this model, local stretched-exponential dynamics is achieved without frozen disorder and is a fundamental property of the coupled system. The heterogeneity of the experimental system can be reproduced by introducing quenched disorder in the model. This suggests that the stretched-exponential dynamics can arise as a purely chaotic phenomenon.