Route to extreme events in a parametrically driven position-dependent nonlinear oscillator

We explore the dynamics of a damped and driven Mathews–Lakshmanan oscillator type model with position-dependent mass term and report two distinct bifurcation routes to the advent of sudden, intermittent large-amplitude chaotic oscillations in the system. We characterize these infrequent and recurrent large oscillations as extreme events (EE) when they are significantly greater than the pre-defined threshold height. In the first bifurcation route, the system exhibits a bifurcation from quasiperiodic (QP) attractor to chaotic attractor via strange non-chaotic (SNA) attractor as a function of damping parameter. In the second route, the chaotic attractor in the form of EE has emerged directly from the QP attractor. Hence, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report the birth of EE from these two distinct bifurcation routes. We also discuss that EE are emerged due to the sudden expansion of the chaotic attractor via interior crisis in the system. Regions of different dynamical states are distinguished using the Lyapunov exponent spectrum. Further, SNA and QP dynamics are determined using the singular spectrum analysis and 0–1 test. The region of EE is characterized using the threshold height.