Escaping from nonhyperbolic chaotic attractors

The noise-induced escape process from a nonhyperbolic chaotic attractor is of physical and fundamental importance. We address this problem by uncovering the general mechanism of escape in the relevant low noise limit using the Hamiltonian theory of large fluctuations and by establishing the crucial role of the primary homoclinic tangency closest to the basin boundary in the dynamical process. In order to demonstrate that, we provide an unambiguous solution of the variational equations from the Hamiltonian theory. Our results are substantiated with the help of physical and dynamical paradigms, such as the Henon and the Ikeda maps. It is further pointed out that our findings should be valid for driven flow systems and for experimental data.