Robust chaos in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>R</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math>

Abstract We treat piecewise-linear continuous maps of dimension <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mtext>⩾</mml:mtext> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> with two pieces each having exactly one unstable direction, and identify an explicit set of sufficient conditions for the existence of a chaotic attractor. The conditions correspond to an open set within the space of all such maps and allow all possible values for the unstable eigenvalues in the limit that all stable eigenvalues tend to zero. To prove an attractor exists we use the stable manifold of a fixed point to construct a trapping region and to prove the attractor is chaotic we use the unstable directions to construct an invariant expanding cone for the derivatives of the pieces of the map. We also show the chaotic attractor persists when small nonlinear terms are added to the pieces of the map. Thus when such an attractor is created locally in a border-collision bifurcation of a general piecewise-smooth system, it persists and is chaotic for an interval of parameter values beyond the bifurcation.