Experimental and theoretical evidence for the chaotic dynamics of complex structures

This paper presents the experimental results on the formation, dynamics and evolution towards chaos of complex space charge structures that emerge in front of a positively biased electrode immersed in a quiescent plasma. In certain experimental conditions, we managed to obtain the so-called multiple double layers (MDLs) with non-concentric configuration. Our experiments show that the interactions between each MDL's constituent entities are held responsible for the complex dynamics and eventually for its transition to chaos through cascades of spatio-temporal sub-harmonic bifurcations. Further, we build a theoretical model based on the fractal approximation (scale relativity theory) in order to reproduce the experimental results (plasma self-structuring and scenario of evolution to chaos). Comparing the experimental results with the theoretical ones, we observe a good correlation between them.