The double scroll

This paper describes the geometric structure of a strange attractor observed from the simplest known chaotic electronic circuit which the author conceived and proposed to Professor Matsumoto from Waseda University in 1983. Computer simulation of this circuit by Professor Matsumoto in October 1983 confirmed its rich chaotic dynamics [1]. Subsquent laboratory experiments using an operational amplifier circuit further confirmed the robust nature of the chaotic attractor [2], and its rich bifurcation phenomena [3]. The strange attractor is now widely known as the double scroll [4] because it resembles, from a distance, a pair of Saturn plants attached to the opposite ends of a tube formed by rolling two long strips of paper together into a scroll whose cross section consists of two tightly wound spirals.