title: Edge state and crisis in the Pierce diode.
abstract: We study the chaotic dynamics of the Pierce diode, a simple spatially extended system for collisionless bounded plasmas, focusing on the concept of edge of chaos, the boundary that separates transient from asymptotic dynamics. We fully characterize an interior crisis at the end of a periodic window, thereby showing direct evidence of the collision between a chaotic attractor, a chaotic saddle, and the edge of chaos, formed by a period-3 unstable periodic orbit and its stable manifold. The edge of chaos persists after the interior crisis, when the global attractor of the system increases its size in the phase space.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Aeronautical Technology (ITA) and World Institute for Space Environment Research (WISER), CTA/ITA/IEFM, São José dos Campos-SP 12228-900, Brazil. pablocus@gmail.com
authors.forename: Pablo R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.forename: Joaquim J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Barroso
authors.forename: Abraham C-L
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Chian
authors.forename: Erico L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Rempel