Non-linear Dynamics Commons^™

Investigation Of Chaos In Biological Systems, Navaneeth Mohan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Chaos is the seemingly irregular behavior arising from a deterministic system. Chaos is observed in many real-world systems. Edward Lorenz’s seminal discovery of chaotic behavior in a weather model has prompted researchers to develop tools that distinguish chaos from non-chaotic behavior. In the first chapter of this thesis, I survey the tools for detecting chaos namely, Poincaré maps, Lyapunov exponents, surrogate data analysis, recurrence plots and correlation integral plots. In chapter two, I investigate blood pressure fluctuations for chaotic signatures. Though my analysis reveals interesting evidence in support of chaos, the utility such an analysis lies in a different direction …