The Lorenz system does not have a polynomial flow (Q583454)

The Lorenz system \[ \dot x=\sigma (y-x),\quad \dot y=\rho x-y-xz,\quad \dot z=-\beta z+xy,\quad (x,y,z)\in {\mathbb{R}}^ 3,\quad \sigma,\rho,\beta >0 \] has been studied widely in computer experiments, but few results about it have rigorous proofs. Numerical evidence suggests that solutions of the Lorenz system behave chaotically even though their behavior is, in principle, deterministic. This paper establishes rigorously one aspect of the Lorenz system's complexity: it does not have a polynomial flow. More precisely, the author's main result is: The Lorenz system is complete and has a polynomial vector field with constant divergence. However, it does not have a polynomial flow. This result is proved by carefully examining the polynomial symmetries of the Lorenz vector field. Besides its relevance to the study of the Lorenz system, this result also shows that, in \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\) for \(n\geq 3\), a complete polynomial vector field with constant divergence need not have a polynomial flow.