Dynamical analysis and map modeling of a thermionic diode plasma experiment

We perform a topological analysis of a chaotic behavior in a plasma experiment: a thermionic diode experiment. The stretching and folding mechanisms are schemed by a three branch template, i.e. a structure more complicated than the common horseshoe template. Moreover, a discrete model for the first-return map to a Poincaré section has been obtained from experimental data by using a global modeling technique. The template and the model give strong indications for a low dimension dynamics underlying the experimental data.