Goal quest for an intelligent surfer moving in a chaotic flow

Abstract

We consider a model of an intelligent surfer moving on the Ulam network generated by a chaotic dynamics in the Chirikov standard map. This directed network is obtained by the Ulam method with a division of the phase space in cells of fixed size forming the nodes of a Markov chain. The goal quest for this surfer is to determine the network path from an initial node $A$ to a final node $B$ with minimal resistance given by the sum of inverse transition probabilities. We develop an algorithm for the intelligent surfer that allows us to perform the quest in a small number of transitions which grows only logarithmically with the network size. The optimal path search is done on a fractal intersection set formed by nodes with small Erd\"os numbers of the forward and inverted networks. The intelligent surfer exponentially outperforms a naive surfer who tries to minimize its phase space distance to target $B$. We argue that such an algorithm provides unique hints for motion control in chaotic flows.