Lyapunov fractals are mathematical objects living in the plane, graphing regions of stability or chaos regarding a certain logistical map following an ever-changing population growth, alternating between two values.
I implemented a Lyapunov fractal viewer in Java 1.8 which lets you freely move around the plane, set sequences and iteration depths to explore the fractal. Source code can be seen below or downloaded, as can the Java executable (Lyapunov.java, Lyapunov.jar).
My first encounter with this fractal was whilst browsing Wikipedia and stumbling across its Wikipedia entry. Since it was a fractal and looked fairly intricate and thus explorable, I set out to write my own renderer — I chose to implement it in Java, as it is a compiled language with a nice set of GUI libraries. Since Wikipedia listed an algorithm for generating Lyapunov fractal images, I thought an implementation would be fairly straight-forward. However, als always, the devil is in the detail and I quickly noticed that while the short Wikipedia entry looks convincing and well-written at first glance, lacks to answer deeper questions regarding the very topic it is about.
- Take as input a complex point
and a sequence
consisting of the letters
and
; for example
.
- Construct a function
which returns the zero indexed
-th sequence entry and wraps around to the sequence’s start once the sequence’s end is hit.
- Construct a function
which selects either
or
.
- Let
and define
.
- Calculate the Lyapunov exponent
as follows.
Since calculating the limit asgoes to infinity is rather difficult in practice, one can simply use a sufficiently large
and pretend to have reached infinity.
- Output a color value according to
. I chose green for
and blue for
, using arbitrarily defined value ranges to map
to an actual color.
// choose a or b according to Seq and n
static double r(String Seq, int n, double a, double b) {
if (Seq.charAt(n%Seq.length()) == 'A') return a; else return b;
}
// calculate a pixel color (0x00rrggbb) for given parameters
static int LyapunovPixel(double a, double b, String Seq, int N) {
// array of all x_n; x_0, the starting value, initialize all x_n values
double[] X = new double[N+1]; X[0] = .5;
for (int n = 1; n <= N; n++) X[n] = r(Seq,n-1,a,b)*X[n-1]*(1-X[n-1]);
// calculate the Lyapunov exponent (to a certain precision dictated by N)
double lmb = 0;
for (int n = 1; n <= N; n++)
lmb += Math.log(Math.abs(r(Seq,n,a,b)*(1-2*X[n])))/Math.log(2);
lmb /= N;
// infinity was hit, use a black pixel
if (Double.isInfinite(lmb)) return 0x000000;
// color pixel according to Lyapunov exponent
double MIN = -1, MAX = 2;
if (lmb < 0) return ((int)(lmb/MIN*255))<<8;
else return ((int)(lmb/MAX*255))<<0;
}
It is not clear whether the sequence is zero or one indexed, though it has to be zero indexed as evaluates to
, implying the definition of
and thus
.
It is not clear which logarithm is meant; the natural logarithm, a generic or the dyadic logarithm — the latter is actually used. To find the actual logarithm base, I dug deeper and used Wikipedia’s external links to find a post by Earl Glynn, answering this question.
It is not clear what is meant by the second half of the sentence beneath the Lyapunov exponent. It reads “… dropping the first summand as for
.” As the sum starts with
and one would not dare to calculate
for
, this sentence’s existence bewilders me.
It is not clear how exactly the colors are derived, only that they have something to do with the Lyapunov exponent. I simply chose arbitrary values that looked convincing for mapping to a pixel color.
angle to the horizontal. It was as though the coordinates
were swapped somewhere in my code and I simply could not figure out where.
Finally, after hours of looking at the same code over and over again, a closer look at Earl Glynn’s post brought an end to my misery. Just below the three welcoming fractal renderings, a screenshot of their software is shown — complete with a blue and red line indicating the coordinate system’s orientation. and
are — contrary to all coordinate systems involving parameters named after the first two letters in the latin alphabet — indeed flipped. Wikipedia’s images must have simply ran with this decision, without noting it.
Because of this flip, when one wants to render images specified in the reversed sequence format, they simply have to swap all letters (for example becomes
).
As Glynn themself says, “I would have reversed the ‘a’ and ‘b’ labels to be consistent with normal ‘x’ and ‘y’ axes conventions, but conform here with the same convention as used by Markus.” (Referring to Mario Markus, co-author of Lyapunov Exponents of the Logistic Map with Periodic Forcing.)
.png
files and named according to their parameters. A list of program controls follows.
- Mouse dragging lets one pan the complex plane.
- Mouse scrolling lets one zoom the complex plane.
- Pressing N evokes a dialogue box where one can specify an iteration depth
.
- Pressing S evokes a dialogue box where one can enter a sequence
.
- Pressing R resets all fractal parameters to the default.
- Pressing P initiates a 4K fractal rendering. The 4K fractal rendering thread can be killed by exiting the program prematurely, thus losing (!) the rendering.
// Java 1.8 code; written by Jonathan Frech, 2017
// === About ===
// This Java program renders the Lyapunov fractal.
// Blog post: https://jonathanfrech.wordpress.com/2017/12/30/lyapunov-fractal/
// === Edit History ===
// Fractal viewer core: 22nd, 23rd of July, 23rd, 24th of December 2017
// Lyapunov fractal: 27th, 29th, 30th of December 2017
// === Compilation ===
// $ javac Lyapunov.java; jar -cvfe Lyapunov.jar Lyapunov *.class
// import
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.awt.image.DataBufferInt;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.lang.Math.*;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
class FractalRenderer implements Runnable {
private MainPanel parent;
private Thread thread;
FractalRenderer(MainPanel p) { parent = p; thread = new Thread(this, "FractalRenderer"); thread.start(); }
public void run() {
// loop indefinitely, check if fractal has to be drawn
while (true) {
// parent dirty, rendering needs to be done
if (parent.dirty) {
// save parameters, render, make sure that parameters have not changed while rendering
int N = parent.N; double Zre = parent.Zre, Zim = parent.Zim, Zom = parent.Zom; String Seq = parent.Seq;
LyapunovRenderer.render(parent.WIDTH, parent.HEIGHT, parent.pxl, N, Zre, Zim, Zom, Seq);
if (N == parent.N && Zre == parent.Zre && Zim == parent.Zim && Zom == parent.Zom && Seq.equals(parent.Seq)) { parent.dirty = false; parent.repaint(); }
}
// did not need to render, sleep
else { try { Thread.sleep(100); } catch (InterruptedException e) {} }
}
}
}
// store fractal parameters
class FractalParameters {
int N; double Zre, Zim, Zom; String Seq;
FractalParameters(int N, double Zre, double Zim, double Zom, String Seq) { this.N = N; this.Zre = Zre; this.Zim = Zim; this.Zom = Zom; this.Seq = Seq; }
}
class FractalRendererQueue implements Runnable {
private Thread thread;
private final int WIDTH, HEIGHT;
private BufferedImage img;
private int[] pxl;
private ArrayList<FractalParameters> queue = new ArrayList<>();
FractalRendererQueue(int W, int H) {
WIDTH = W; HEIGHT = H;
img = new BufferedImage(WIDTH, HEIGHT, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
pxl = ((DataBufferInt) img.getRaster().getDataBuffer()).getData();
thread = new Thread(this, "FractalRendererQueue");
thread.start();
}
// add another item to the queue
void add(FractalParameters fp) { queue.add(fp); }
public void run() {
// loop indefinitely, check if fractal has to be drawn
while (true) {
// item in queue, render
if (queue.size() > 0) {
FractalParameters fp = queue.remove(0);
LyapunovRenderer.render(WIDTH, HEIGHT, pxl, fp);
try {
String fn = System.getProperty("user.dir") + "/Lyapunov["+WIDTH+"x"+HEIGHT+"](N="+fp.N+",Zre="+fp.Zre+",Zim="+fp.Zim+",Zom="+fp.Zom+",Seq="+fp.Seq+").png";
ImageIO.write(img, "png", new File(fn));
} catch (Exception e) { }
}
// queue empty, sleep
else { try { Thread.sleep(100); } catch (InterruptedException e) {} }
}
}
}
class LyapunovRenderer {
// r_n
static double r(String Seq, int n, double a, double b) {
if (Seq.charAt(n%Seq.length()) == 'A') return a;
else return b;
}
// render a Lyapunov fractal on given pixel array
static void render(int W, int H, int[] pxl, int N, double Zre, double Zim, double Zom, String Seq) {
// array of all x_n; x_0, the starting value
double[] X = new double[N+1]; X[0] = .5;
// complex height and width, ln(2) constant
double h = Zom*2, w = h*W/H;
double ln2 = Math.log(2);
// used for coloring
double MIN = -1, MAX = 2;
// loop through pixels
for (int y = 0; y < H; y++) { for (int x = 0; x < W; x++) {
// complex coordinates
double a = Zre-w/2.+w*x/W, b = Zim+h/2.-h*y/H;
// only focus on a certain subset of the complex plane (disabled)
//if (a < 0 || a > 4 || b < 0 || b > 4) { pxl[x+y*W] = 0; continue; }
// initialize all x_n values
for (int n = 1; n <= N; n++) X[n] = r(Seq, n-1, a, b)*X[n-1]*(1-X[n-1]);
// calculate the Lyapunov exponent (to a certain precision dictated by N)
double lmb = 0;
for (int n = 1; n <= N; n++) lmb += Math.log(Math.abs(r(Seq, n, a, b)*(1-2*X[n])))/ln2;
lmb /= N;
// infinity was hit, use a black pixel
if (Double.isInfinite(lmb)) { pxl[x+y*W] = 0; continue; }
// color pixel according to Lyapunov exponent and defined MIN, MAX values (colors hard coded)
if (lmb < 0) pxl[x+y*W] = ((int)(lmb/MIN*255))<<8;
else pxl[x+y*W] = ((int)(lmb/MAX*255))<<0;
}}
}
// render using a FractalParameters class to hold fractal parameters
static void render(int W, int H, int[] pxl, FractalParameters fp) { render(W, H, pxl, fp.N, fp.Zre, fp.Zim, fp.Zom, fp.Seq); }
}
class MainPanel extends JPanel {
// image dimensions
final int WIDTH_SMALL = 64, HEIGHT_SMALL = 48;
final int WIDTH = 640, HEIGHT = 480;
final int WIDTH_LARGE = 3840, HEIGHT_LARGE = 2160;
// buffered images and their pixel arrays
BufferedImage img_small, img;
int[] pxl_small, pxl;
// fractal parameters
boolean dirty = false;
double Zom, Zre, Zim;
String Seq; int N;
// queue thread
private FractalRendererQueue Renderer;
// mouse paning
private boolean paning = false;
private int paningx, paningy;
private double paningre, paningim;
private final double panspeed = 50;
// zoom change, maximal zoom
private final double Z = .9;
private final double ZomMax = 10;
// constructor
MainPanel() {
// initialize images
img_small = new BufferedImage(WIDTH_SMALL, HEIGHT_SMALL, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
img = new BufferedImage(WIDTH, HEIGHT, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
pxl = ((DataBufferInt) img.getRaster().getDataBuffer()).getData();
pxl_small = ((DataBufferInt) img_small.getRaster().getDataBuffer()).getData();
// start threads
new FractalRenderer(this);
Renderer = new FractalRendererQueue(WIDTH_LARGE, HEIGHT_LARGE);
// add listeners, focus, reset and thereby start program
addlisteners(); setFocusable(true); reset();
}
// reset parameters
private void reset() {
// Zircon Zity
Seq = "AAAAAABBBBBB"; Zom = .3; Zim = 3.7; N = 100;
double h = Zom*2, w = h*WIDTH/HEIGHT;
Zre = 3.4-w/2;
draw();
}
// draw preview, tell thread to draw
private void draw() {
if (Zom > ZomMax) Zom = ZomMax;
LyapunovRenderer.render(WIDTH_SMALL, HEIGHT_SMALL, pxl_small, N, Zre, Zim, Zom, Seq);
dirty = true; repaint();
}
// draw component
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
if (dirty) g.drawImage(img_small, 0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT, null);
else g.drawImage(img, 0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT, null);
g.dispose();
}
// component size
@Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() { return new Dimension(WIDTH, HEIGHT); }
// add listeners
private void addlisteners() {
addKeyListener(new KeyAdapter() {
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
// complex frame size
double im = Zom/2, re = im*WIDTH/HEIGHT;
// set N
if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_N) {
try {
String I = (String) JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "N = ", "Set N (currently "+N+")", JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE, null, null, Integer.toString(N));
if (N > 0) { N = Integer.parseInt(I); draw(); }
}
catch (NullPointerException ne) { }
catch (NumberFormatException ne) { }
}
// set Seq
else if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_S) {
try {
String I = (String) JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Seq = ", "Set Seq (currently "+Seq+")", JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE, null, null, Seq);
String nSeq = "";
for (char c : I.toCharArray()) {
if (c == 'A' || c == 'a') nSeq += "A";
if (c == 'B' || c == 'b') nSeq += "B";
}
if (nSeq.length() > 0) { Seq = nSeq; draw(); }
} catch (NullPointerException ne) { }
}
// reset
else if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_R) reset();
// save fractal rendering
else if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_P) { Renderer.add(new FractalParameters(N, Zre, Zim, Zom, Seq)); }
}
});
addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
paning = true;
paningx = e.getX(); paningy = e.getY();
paningre = Zre; paningim = Zim;
}
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
if (paning) {
if (dirty) pan(e);
paning = false;
}
}
});
addMouseMotionListener(new MouseAdapter() {
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) { pan(e); }
});
addMouseWheelListener(new MouseAdapter() {
public void mouseWheelMoved(MouseWheelEvent e) {
// scroll intensity, complex frame size
int n = e.getWheelRotation();
double im = Zom*2, re = im*WIDTH/HEIGHT;
// do not scroll (and thereby render) unnecessarily
if (n > 0 && Zom == ZomMax) return;
// mouse cursor's real and imaginary part
double r = Zre-re/2+re*e.getX()/WIDTH;
double i = Zim-im/2+im*(HEIGHT-e.getY())/HEIGHT;
// zoom
Zom *= Math.pow(Z, -n);
if (Zom > ZomMax) Zom = ZomMax;
im = Zom*2; re = im*WIDTH/HEIGHT;
// shift so that cursor is at its previous relative position
Zre = re/2-re*e.getX()/WIDTH+r;
Zim = im/2-im*(HEIGHT-e.getY())/HEIGHT+i;
// redraw
draw();
}
});
}
// shift frame based on mouse dragging
private void pan(MouseEvent e) {
// calculate pixel delta, complex delta
int dx = paningx-e.getX(), dy = paningy-e.getY();
double im = Zom*2, re = im*WIDTH/HEIGHT;
double dre = re*dx/WIDTH, dim = im*dy/HEIGHT;
// add complex delta
Zre = paningre + dre;
Zim = paningim - dim;
// redraw
draw();
}
}
class Lyapunov extends JFrame {
private Lyapunov() {
setTitle("Lyapunov"); setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationByPlatform(true); setResizable(false);
add(new MainPanel()); pack(); setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) { new Lyapunov(); }
}
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