Homoclinic tangencies and routes to chaos in a dripping faucet experiment

We present the analysis of two attractor sequences from a dripping faucet experiment, which were taken in different regions of the control parameter (dripping rate). We used symbolic dynamics analysis to enlighten the similarities between some experimental attractors and Hénon-like attractors. Such similarities are clear evidences that the two transitions to chaos concern the breakup of a T2 torus due to a homoclinic bifurcation, a homoclinic tangency of the manifolds of saddle-node points embedded in the torus. We also present a phenomenological model to explain how a dripping faucet experiment can show such homoclinic bifurcations, quasiattractors, and also long-range anticorrelations, behaviors similar to the ones presented by biological systems.