Periodic Pulling and Turbulence in a Bounded Plasma

Abstract

Experimental results obtained with a $Q$ machine demonstrate the effect of a nonlinear mechanism called periodic pulling that has been proposed to explain the transition to turbulence in a bounded plasma characterized by weakly unstable modes. The effect is characteristic of any distributed-parameter system that can be described by the van der Pol equation and is related to phenomena observed in solid-state oscillators and the gas laser.