Rössler attractor
Appearance
The Rössler attractor is a system of three ordinary differential equations introduced by Otto Rössler in 1976 as a deliberately simplified prototype of chaotic behavior in continuous-time systems. Unlike the Lorenz attractor, which emerged from physical meteorology, the Rössler system was designed to exhibit chaos with minimal complexity — a single nonlinear term suffices. Its strange attractor resembles a folded ribbon, with trajectories that circulate near a saddle-focus before being reinjected into the chaotic region. The Rössler attractor has become a standard model in chaos theory for studying period-doubling routes to chaos and for testing control algorithms in hyperchaotic extensions.