Manifestation of strange nonchaotic attractors in extended systems: a study through out-of-time-ordered correlators

We study the spatial spread of out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) in coupled map lattices (CMLs) of quasiperiodically forced nonlinear maps. We use instantaneous speed (IS) and finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLEs) to investigate the role of strange non-chaotic attractors (SNAs) on the spatial spread of the OTOC. We find that these CMLs exhibit a characteristic on and off type of spread of the OTOC for SNA. Further, we provide a broad spectrum of the various dynamical regimes in a two-parameter phase diagram using IS and FTLEs. We substantiate our results by confirming the presence of SNA using established tools and measures, namely the distribution of finite-time Lyapunov exponents, phase sensitivity, spectrum of partial Fourier sums, and 0–1 test. Graphic Abstract