The Lyapunov characteristic exponent [LCE] gives the rate of exponential divergence from perturbed initial conditions. To examine the behavior of an orbit around a point
,
perturb the system and write
 |
(1)
|
where 
is the average deviation from the unperturbed trajectory at time 
. In a chaotic region, the LCE 
is independent of 
. It is given by the Oseledec
theorem, which states that
 |
(2)
|
For an 
-dimensional
mapping, the Lyapunov characteristic exponents are given by
 |
(3)
|
for 
,
..., 
,
where 
is the Lyapunov characteristic number.
One Lyapunov characteristic exponent is always 0, since there is never any divergence for a perturbed trajectory in the direction of the unperturbed trajectory. The larger the LCE, the greater the rate of exponential divergence and the wider the corresponding separatrix of the chaotic region. For the standard map, an analytic estimate of the width of the chaotic zone by Chirikov (1979) finds
 |
(4)
|
Since the Lyapunov characteristic exponent increases with increasing 
, some relationship likely exists connecting the two. Let a
trajectory (expressed as a map) have initial conditions 
and a nearby trajectory have initial conditions 
. The distance between trajectories
at iteration 
is then
 |
(5)
|
and the mean exponential rate of divergence of the trajectories is defined by
 |
(6)
|
For an 
-dimensional
phase space (map), there are 
Lyapunov characteristic exponents 
. However, because the
largest exponent 
will dominate, this limit is practically useful only
for finding the largest exponent. Numerically, since 
increases exponentially with 
, after a few steps the perturbed trajectory is no longer nearby.
It is therefore necessary to renormalize frequently every 
steps. Defining
 |
(7)
|
one can then compute
 |
(8)
|
Numerical computation of the second (smaller) Lyapunov exponent may be carried by considering the evolution of a two-dimensional surface. It will behave as
 |
(9)
|
so 
can be extracted if 
is known. The process may be repeated to find smaller
exponents.
For Hamiltonian systems, the LCEs exist in additive inverse pairs, so if 
is an LCE, then so is 
. One LCE is always 0. For a one-dimensional oscillator
(with a two-dimensional phase space), the two LCEs therefore must be 
, so the motion is quasiperiodic
and cannot be chaotic. For higher order Hamiltonian
systems, there are always at least two 0 LCEs, but other LCEs may enter in plus-and-minus
pairs 
and 
.
If they, too, are both zero, the motion is integrable and not chaotic.
If they are nonzero, the positive
LCE 
results in an exponential separation of trajectories, which corresponds to a chaotic
region. Notice that it is not possible to have all LCEs negative,
which explains why convergence of orbits is never observed in Hamiltonian
systems.
Now consider a dissipative system. For an arbitrary 
-dimensional phase space, there must always be one LCE equal
to 0, since a perturbation along the path results in no divergence. The LCEs satisfy
.
Therefore, for a two-dimensional phase space of a dissipative system, 
. For a three-dimensional phase space,
there are three possibilities:
1. (Integrable): 
,
2. (Integrable): 
,
3. (Chaotic): 
.
