Estimating the ultimate bound and positively invariant set for the Lorenz system and a unified chaotic system ✩

To estimate the ultimate bound and positively invariant set for a dynamic system is an important but quite challenging task in general. In this paper, we attempt to investigate the ultimate bound and positively invariant set for two specific systems, the Lorenz system and a unified chaotic system. We derive an ellipsoidal estimate of the ultimate bound and positively invariant set for the Lorenz system, for all the positive values of its parameters a, b and c, and obtain the minimum value of volume for the ellipsoid. Comparing with the best results in the current literature [D. Li, J. Lu, X. Wu, G. Chen, Estimating the bounds for the Lorenz family of chaotic systems, Chaos Solitons Fractals 23 (2005) 529–534; X. Liao, On the global basin of attraction and positively invariant set for the Lorenz chaotic system and its application in chaos control and synchronization, Sci. China Ser. E 34 (2004) 1404–1419], our new results fill up the gap of the estimate for the cases of 0 < a <1 and 0 < b <2 [X. Liao, On the global basin of attraction and positively invariant set for the Lorenz chaotic system and its application in chaos control and synchronization, Sci. China Ser. E 34 (2004) 1404–1419]. Furthermore, the estimation derived here contains the results given in [D. Li, J. Lu, X. Wu, G. Chen, Estimating the bounds for the Lorenz family of chaotic systems, Chaos Solitons Fractals 23 (2005) 529–534] and [X. Liao, On the global basin of attraction and positively invariant set for the Lorenz chaotic system and its application in chaos control and synchronization, Sci. China Ser. E 34 (2004) 1404–1419] as special cases. Along the same line, we also provide estimates of cylindrical and ellipsoidal bounds for a unified chaotic system, for its parameter range 0 α < 1 29 , and obtain the minimum value of volume for the ellipsoid. The estimate is more accurate than and also extends the result of [D. Li, J. Lu, X. Wu, G. Chen, Estimating the bounds for the Lorenz family of chaotic systems, Chaos SolitonsFractals 23 (2005) 529–534] and [X. Liao, On the global basin of attraction and positively invariant set for the Lorenz chaotic system and its application in chaos control and synchronization, Sci. China Ser. E 34 (2004) 1404–1419]. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.