title: Velocity width of the resonant domain in wave-particle interaction.
abstract: Wave-particle interaction is a ubiquitous physical mechanism exhibiting locality in velocity space. A single-wave Hamiltonian provides a rich model by which to study the self-consistent interaction between one electrostatic wave and N quasiresonant particles. For the simplest nonintegrable Hamiltonian coupling two particles to one wave, we analytically derive the particle velocity borders separating quasi-integrable motions from chaotic ones. These estimates are fully retrieved through computation of the largest Lyapunov exponent. For the large-N particle self-consistent case, we numerically investigate the localization of stochasticity in velocity space and test a qualitative estimate of the borders of chaos.
authors.affiliation: Physique des Interactions Ioniques et Moléculaires, Unité 6633 du CNRS, Université de Provence, Equipe Turbulence Plasma, Case 321, Centre de Saint-Jérôme, F-13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France. firpo@newsup.univ-mrs.fr
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Firpo
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Doveil