Dynamics of a Novel 4D Chaotic System: Stability, Bifurcation, Chaos, and Complexity Analysis for Constant and Variable Fractional Orders

Four-dimensional chaotic systems have garnered significant attention due to their complex nonlinear dynamics, high-dimensional complexity, and wide range of applications in science and engineering. This paper proposes and investigates a novel four-dimensional chaotic system in both constant- and variable-order frameworks to reveal the influence of memory effects on its dynamical behavior. The variable-order formulation is established using the Liouville–Caputo fractional derivative, while an efficient numerical scheme based on Lagrange interpolation is developed to approximate the variable-order derivative accurately. A rigorous local stability analysis is first conducted to characterize the equilibrium points and establish their instability and non-hyperbolic nature under the different derivative formulations. The nonlinear dynamics of the proposed system are then comprehensively examined through phase portraits, time series, bifurcation diagrams, and Lyapunov exponent analysis. The results demonstrate that the variable-order model preserves the fundamental topological characteristics of the chaotic attractors while introducing adaptive transient responses and significantly richer dynamical behaviors than the corresponding constant fractional-order model. Furthermore, the proposed system generates previously unreported chaotic attractors and phase-space patterns, enriching the class of known four-dimensional chaotic systems and demonstrating the variable-order framework’s enhanced capability to produce diverse nonlinear phenomena through adaptive memory effects.