Attractor is a technical term in the theory of dynamic systems. An attractor can be defined as a part of the phase space of a dynamic system to which the system confines itself in the course of time, until it is trapped in it. The simplest example of an attractor is the point of rest of a pendulum, which is geometrically represented by a simple point. More complicated dynamic systems have attractors that require complicated geometric representations. Strange attractors, the attractors of chaotic dynamic systems, have fractal geometric representations.

See also CHAOS THEORY

WOLFGANG ACHTNER