Dynamical systems approach to space and astrophysical turbulence

Abstract

A new transition mechanism to Alfvén chaos via boundary crisis in space and astrophysical plasmas is reported. This crisis appears in a complex plasma region in the presence of a large number of coexisting attractors. We characterize an example of double boundary crises using the unstable periodic orbit determined from the numerical solution of the driven-dissipative derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation, and demonstrate how the same unstable periodic orbit causes the appearance/disappearance of two chaotic attractors due to two successive homoclinic tangencies.