We uncover a route from low-dimensional to high-dimensional chaos in nonsmooth dynamical systems as a bifurcation parameter is continuously varied. The striking feature is the existence of a finite parameter interval of periodic attractors in between the regimes of low- and high-dimensional chaos. That is, the emergence of high-dimensional chaos is preceded by the systems settling into a totally nonchaotic regime. This is characteristically distinct from the situation in smooth dynamical systems where high-dimensional chaos emerges directly and smoothly from low-dimensional chaos. We carry out an analysis to elucidate the underlying mechanism for the abrupt emergence and disappearance of the periodic attractors and provide strong numerical support for the typicality of the transition route in the pertinent two-dimensional parameter space. The finding has implications to applications where high-dimensional and robust chaos is desired.
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