Attractor-driven matter

Abstract: The state of a classical point-particle system may often be specified by giving the position and momentum for each constituent particle. For non-pointlike particles, the center-of-mass position may be augmented by an additional coordinate that specifies the internal state of each particle. The internal state space is typically topologically simple, in the sense that the particle's internal coordinate belongs to a suitable symmetry group. In this paper we explore the idea of giving internal complexity to the particles, by attributing to each particle an internal state space that is represented by a point on a strange (or otherwise) attracting set. It is of course very well known that strange attractors arise in a variety of nonlinear dynamical systems. However, rather than considering strange attractors as emerging from complex dynamics, we may employ strange attractors to {\em drive} such dynamics. In particular, by using an attractor (strange or otherwise) to model each particle's internal state space, we present a class of matter coined ``attractor-driven matter''. We outline the general formalism for attractor-driven matter and explore several specific examples, some of which are reminiscent of active matter. Beyond the examples studied in this paper, our formalism for attractor-driven dynamics may be applicable more broadly, to model complex dynamical and emergent behaviors in a variety of contexts.