We study chaotic systems with multiple time delays that range over several orders of magnitude. We show that the spectrum of Lyapunov exponents (LE) in such systems possesses a hierarchical structure, with different parts scaling with the different delays. This leads to different types of chaos, depending on the scaling of the maximal LE. Our results are relevant, in particular, for the synchronization properties of hierarchical networks (networks of networks) where the nodes of subnetworks are coupled with shorter delays and couplings between different subnetworks are realized with longer delay times. Units within a subnetwork can synchronize if the maximal exponent scales with the shorter delay, long range synchronization between different subnetworks is only possible if the maximal exponent scales with the long delay. The results are illustrated analytically for Bernoulli maps and numerically for tent maps.
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