In a project involving an alliance between universities and high schools, a magnetized plasma column with a steep pressure gradient was established in an experimental device. A two-dimensional probe measured fluctuations in the plasma column in a plane transverse to the background magnetic field. Correlation techniques determined that the fluctuations were that of electrostatic drift waves. The time series data were used to generate the Bandt-Pompe entropy and Jensen-Shannon complexity for the data. These quantities, when plotted against one another, revealed that a combination of drift waves and other background fluctuations were a deterministically chaotic system. Our analysis can be used to tell the difference between deterministic chaos and random noise, making it a potentially useful technique in nonlinear dynamics.
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February 2016
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February 01 2016
Drift waves and chaos in a LAPTAG plasma physics experiment
Walter Gekelman;
Walter Gekelman
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California (UCLA)
, 1000 Veteran Avenue Rm.15-70 Los Angeles, California 90095
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Patrick Pribyl;
Patrick Pribyl
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California (UCLA)
, 1000 Veteran Avenue Rm.15-70 Los Angeles, California 90095
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Henry Birge-Lee;
Henry Birge-Lee
North Hollywood High School
, 5231 Colfax Avenue, North Hollywood, California 91601
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Joe Wise;
Joe Wise
Wildwood School
, 11811 Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90066
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Cami Katz;
Cami Katz
Harvard Westlake
, 3700 Coldwater Canyon Avenue, Studio City, California 91604
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Ben Wolman;
Ben Wolman
Palisades Charter High School
, 15777 Bowdoin Street, Pacific Palisades, California 90272
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Bob Baker;
Bob Baker
University High School
, 11800 Texas Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90025
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Ken Marmie;
Ken Marmie
Roosevelt Middle School
, 222 E. Acacia Avenue, Glendale, California 91250
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Vedang Patankar;
Vedang Patankar
North Hollywood High School
, 5231 Colfax Avenue, North Hollywood, California 91601
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Gabriel Bridges;
Gabriel Bridges
John Marshall High School
, 3939 Tracy Street, Los Angeles, California 90027
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Samuel Buckley-Bonanno;
Samuel Buckley-Bonanno
Lincoln Middle School
, 1501 California Avenue, Santa Monica, California 90403
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Susan Buckley;
Susan Buckley
Westlake High School
, 100 Lakeview Canyon Road, Westlake Village, California 91362
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Andrew Ge;
Andrew Ge
Westlake High School
, 100 Lakeview Canyon Road, Westlake Village, California 91362
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Sam Thomas
Sam Thomas
John Marshall High School
, 3939 Tracy Street, Los Angeles, California 90027
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Am. J. Phys. 84, 118–126 (2016)
Article history
Received:
April 14 2015
Accepted:
November 10 2015
Citation
Walter Gekelman, Patrick Pribyl, Henry Birge-Lee, Joe Wise, Cami Katz, Ben Wolman, Bob Baker, Ken Marmie, Vedang Patankar, Gabriel Bridges, Samuel Buckley-Bonanno, Susan Buckley, Andrew Ge, Sam Thomas; Drift waves and chaos in a LAPTAG plasma physics experiment. Am. J. Phys. 1 February 2016; 84 (2): 118–126. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4936460
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