Fractal boundaries in chaotic hamiltonian systems

Abstract

Fractal structures are typically present in the dynamics of chaotic orbits in non-integrable open Hamiltonian systems and result from the extremely complicated nature of the invariant manifolds of unstable periodic orbits. Exit basins, the set of initial conditions leading to orbits escaping through a given exit, have very frequently fractal boundaries. In this work we analyze exit basin boundaries in a dynamical system of physical interest, namely the motion of charged particles in a magnetized plasma subjected to electrostatic drift waves, and characterize in a quantitative way the fractality of these structures and their observable consequences, as the final-state uncertainty.