Definition
Transient chaos describes dynamical systems that behave chaotically for a finite stretch of time — nearby trajectories diverge unpredictably — before eventually settling onto a stable outcome or attractor. It offers a way to reconcile apparent randomness with reliable end behavior: a system can look erratic mid-process yet still converge on the same answer every time, which is exactly the pattern researchers point to when analyzing how iterative reasoning unfolds inside a model's hidden state before it locks onto a final output.
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