The unprecedented light curves of the Kepler space telescope document how the brightness of some stars pulsates at primary and secondary frequencies whose ratios are near the golden mean, the most irrational number. A nonlinear dynamical system drive
n by an irrational ratio of frequencies generically exhibits a strange but nonchaotic attractor. For Keplers golden stars, we present evidence of the first observation of strange nonchaotic dynamics in nature outside the laboratory. This discovery could aid the classification and detailed modeling of variable stars.
We demonstrate how coupling nonlinear dynamical systems can reduce the effects of noise. For simplicity we investigate noisy coupled map lattices. Noise from different lattice nodes can diffuse across the lattice and lower the noise level of individu
al nodes. We develop a theoretical model that explains this observed noise evolution and show how the coupled dynamics can naturally function as an averaging filter. Our numerical simulations are in excellent agreement with the model predictions.
