Route to hyperbolic hyperchaos in a nonautonomous time-delay system

We consider a self-oscillator whose excitation parameter is varied. The frequency of the variation is much smaller than the natural frequency of the oscillator so that oscillations in the system are periodically excited and decayed. Also, a time delay is added such that when the oscillations start to grow at a new excitation stage, they are influenced via the delay line by the oscillations at the penultimate excitation stage. Due to nonlinearity, the seeding from the past arrives with a doubled phase so that the oscillation phase changes from stage to stage according to the chaotic Bernoulli-type map. As a result, the system operates as two coupled hyperbolic chaotic subsystems. Varying the relation between the delay time and the excitation period, we found a coupling strength between these subsystems as well as intensity of the phase doubling mechanism responsible for the hyperbolicity. Due to this, a transition from non-hyperbolic to hyperbolic hyperchaos occurs. The following steps of the transition scenario are revealed and analyzed: (a) an intermittency as an alternation of long staying near a fixed point at the origin and short chaotic bursts; (b) chaotic oscillations with frequent visits to the fixed point; (c) plain hyperchaos without hyperbolicity after termination visiting the fixed point; and (d) transformation of hyperchaos to the hyperbolic form.