Chaos in Magnetoplasmas

B. Buti (1)

1 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

A nonlinear wave, in general, is equivalent to a nonlinear dynamical system, which exhibits the phenomena of chaos. By means of techniques of nonlinear dynamical systems, we have investigated the conditions under which nonlinear Alfvén waves and lower-hybrid waves can become chaotic. The role of heavy ions, in controlling the chaos in magnetoplasmas, is examined. Chaotic routes to Alfvénic turbulence, with k^-1 spectra, are observed in case of externally driven nonlinear Alfvén waves. Anomalous heating and particle acceleration resulting from chaotic fields, generated by lower-hybrid waves, are briefly outlined.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Sciences de la Terre

B. Buti. Chaos in Magnetoplasmas. Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 1999, 6 (3/4), pp.129-143. ⟨hal-00301936⟩