Diffusion in normal and critical transient chaos

Abstract

In this paper we investigate deterministic diffusion in systems which are spatially extended in certain directions but are restricted in size and open in other directions, consequently particles can escape. We introduce besides the diffusion coefficient D on the chaotic repeller a coefficient ${\hat D}$ which measures the broadening of the distribution of trajectories during the transient chaotic motion. Both coefficients are explicitly computed for one-dimensional models, and they are found to be different in most cases. We show furthermore that a jump develops in both of the coefficients for most of the initial distributions when we approach the critical borderline where the escape rate equals the Liapunov exponent of a periodic orbit.