Infinitely Many Heteroclinic Orbits of a Complex Lorenz System

The existence of heteroclinic orbits of a chaotic system is a difficult yet interesting mathematical problem. Nowadays, a rigorous analytical proof for the existence of a heteroclinic orbit can be carried out only for some special chaotic and hyperchaotic systems, and few results are known for the complex systems. In this paper, by revisiting a complex Lorenz system, it is found that this system possesses an infinite set of heteroclinic orbits to the origin and its circle equilibria. However, it is impossible for the corresponding real Lorenz system to have infinitely many heteroclinic orbits. The theoretical tools for proving the main results are Lyapunov functions and the definitions of alpha-limit set and omega-limit set. Numerical simulations show the effectiveness and correctness of the theoretical conclusions. The investigations not only enrich the related results for the complex Lorenz system, but also find the essential difference between the complex Lorenz system and its corresponding real version: the complex Lorenz system has infinitely many heteroclinic orbits whereas its corresponding real one does not.