Projective synchronization of different fractional-order chaotic systems with non-identical orders

Abstract This paper investigates the projective synchronization (PS) of different fractional order chaotic systems while the derivative orders of the states in drive and response systems are unequal. Based on some essential properties on fractional calculus and the stability theorems of fractional-order systems, we propose a general method to achieve the PS in such cases. The fractional operators are introduced into the controller to transform the problem into synchronization problem between chaotic systems with identical orders, and the nonlinear feedback controller is proposed based on the concept of active control technique. The method is both theoretically rigorous and practically feasible. We present two examples that illustrate the effectiveness and applications of the method, which include the PS between two 3-D commensurate fractional-order chaotic systems and the PS between two 4-D fractional-order hyperchaotic systems with incommensurate and commensurate orders, respectively. Abundant numerical simulations are given which agree well with the analytical results. Our investigations show that PS can also be achieved between different chaotic systems with non-identical orders. We have further reviewed and compared some relevant methods on this topic reported in several recent papers. A discussion on the physical implementation of the proposed method is also presented in this paper.