Contributions of plasma physics to chaos and nonlinear dynamics

TL;DR

This review highlights how plasma physics has advanced the understanding of chaos and nonlinear dynamics through methods applicable across various scientific fields, originating mainly from thermonuclear fusion research.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of plasma physics contributions to chaos theory, including Hamiltonian chaos, adiabatic and soliton theories, and quantum chaos, emphasizing their interdisciplinary relevance.

Findings

Development of Hamiltonian chaos theory

Application of adiabatic and soliton theories in nonlinear dynamics

Insights into dissipative and quantum chaos phenomena

Abstract

This topical review focusses on the contributions of plasma physics to chaos and nonlinear dynamics bringing new methods which are or can be used in other scientific domains. It starts with the development of the theory of Hamiltonian chaos, and then deals with order or quasi order, for instance adiabatic and soliton theories. It ends with a shorter account of dissipative and high dimensional Hamiltonian dynamics, and of quantum chaos. Most of these contributions are a spin-off of the research on thermonuclear fusion by magnetic confinement, which started in the fifties. Their presentation is both exhaustive and compact. [15 April 2016]