Controlling extended systems of chaotic elements

Abstract

A control scheme is devised for taming the dynamics of convectively unstable extended systems exhibiting chaotic behavior. We show how complex spatiotemporal phenomena can be eliminated in arrays of coupled chaotic elements, in favor of a coherent state in which all elements are synchronized to a prescribed periodic orbit of the uncoupled system. The propagation of the synchronizing front and the resulting steady state properties of the array are anlayzed in the presence of noise.