Evidence of low-dimensional chaos in magnetized plasma turbulence

Abstract

We analyze probe data obtained from a toroidal magnetized plasma configuration suitable for studies of low-frequency gradient-driven instabilities. These instabilities give rise to field-aligned convection rolls analogous to Rayleigh-Benard cells in neutral fluids, and may theoretically develop similar routes to chaos. When using mean-field dimension analysis, we observe low dimensionality, but this could originate from either low-dimensional chaos, periodicity or quasi-periodicity. Therefore, we apply recurrence plot analysis as well as estimation of the largest Lyapunov exponent. These analyses provide evidence of low-dimensional chaos, in agreement with theoretical predictions. Our results can be applied to other magnetized plasma configurations, where gradient-driven instabilities dominate the dynamics of the system.