In recent decades, the concepts and appli cations of chaos, complexity, and nonlinear dynamics have profoundly influenced scien tific as well as literary thinking. Some aspects of these concepts are used in almost all of the geophysical disciplines. Chaos and Structures in Nonlinear Plasmas, written by two respected plasma physicists, focuses on nonlinear phenom ena in laboratory and space plasmas, which are rich in nonlinear and complex collective ef fects. Chaos is treated only insofar as it relates to some aspects of nonlinear plasma physics.At the outset, the authors note that plasma physics research has made fundamental con tributions to modern nonlinear sciences. For example, the Poincare surface of section technique was extensively used in studies of stochastic field lines in magnetically confined plasmas and turbulence. More generally, nonlinearity in plasma waves and wave-wave and wave-particle interactions critically de termines the propagation of energy through a plasma medium. The book also makes it clear that the importance of understanding nonlinear waves goes beyond plasma phys ics, extending to such diverse fields as solid state physics, fluid dynamics, atmospheric physics, and optics. In space physics, non linear plasma physics is essential for interpret ing in situ as well as remote-sensing data.This book attempts to bring together chaos and the physics of nonlinear plasma phenomena. Its appeal to the space physics community is rather obvious because many plasma applications can be found in one place. The book is logically organized, and the salient aspects of each topic are clearly presented. First, it takes the reader through basic theory of generic nonlinear processes such as nonlinear oscillations, parametric in stabilities, and resonance overlap. This expo sition is followed by a survey of Hamiltonian dynamics, covering the Poincare surface of section technique, Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theorem, and some basic topological proper ties of phase space. With these essential tools, the authors immediately delve into the non linear dynamics of charged particles in elec tric and magnetic fields. Particle dynamics, of course, is at the heart of fully understanding plasma behaviors for both laboratory and space plasmas, including stochastic particle motion in the magnetotail field configuration with no noise or waves. Next, the authors pre sent test particle motion in drift waves in detail and develop resonance overlap criteria. The conditions for the onset of strong stochasticity are used to illustrate particle diffusion across magnetic fields resulting from wave-particle in teractions in a number of magnetic field con figurations. These discussions are followed by an overview of phase space structures in Hamiltonian systems.Up to this point, which is roughly halfway in the book, the discussion deals with theoretical concepts and mathematical techniques, with applications to basic plasma properties. The second half of the book focuses on nonlinear phenomena involving waves. First, in Chapter 5, the ...
