Study of wave–particle interaction from the linear regime to dynamical chaos in a magnetized plasma*

Abstract
The onset of chaotic ion dynamics in electrostatic waves is investigated in a linear magnetized plasma. The existence of a threshold for heating in agreement with the predictions of single particle Hamiltonian theories and the fast time scale for velocity space diffusion are observed in the experiment. Measurements of test-particle dynamics indicate an exponential separation of initially close ion trajectories for amplitudes above the heating threshold. Ion orbits in the different wave–particle interaction regimes are inferred using an optical tagging diagnostic method, which provides the two point correlation function in phase space.