Study of low-dimensional nonlinear fractional difference equations of complex order.

We study the fractional maps of complex order, , for 0 < < 1 and 0 ≤ r < 1 in one and two dimensions. In two dimensions, we study Hénon, Duffing, and Lozi maps, and in 1 d, we study logistic, tent, Gauss, circle, and Bernoulli maps. The generalization in 2 d can be done in two different ways, which are not equivalent for fractional order and lead to different bifurcation diagrams. We observed that the smooth maps, such as logistic, Gauss, Duffing, and Hénon maps, do not show chaos, while discontinuous maps, such as Bernoulli and circle maps,show chaos. The tent and Lozi map are continuous but not differentiable, and they show chaos as well. In 2 d, we find that the complex fractional-order maps that show chaos also show multistability. Thus, it can be inferred that the smooth maps of complex fractional order tend to show more regular behavior than the discontinuous or non-differentiable maps.