Singular Perturbation of Nonlinear Dynamics by Parasitic Noise

In nonlinear systems analysis, minor fractions of higher-order dynamics are often neglected for simplicity. Here, we show that machine epsilon levels of parasitic higher-order dynamics due to computer roundoff alone can cause divergence of the H\'enon attractor to new attractors or instability. The divergence develops exponentially regardless of whether the original or new attractor is chaotic or not. Such singular perturbation by parasitic higher-order dynamics is a novel property of nonlinear dynamics that is of wide practical significance in dynamical systems modeling, simulation and control.