Reconnection in a global model of Poincaré map describing dynamics of magnetic field lines in a reversed shear tokamak

Magnetic field lines behaviour in a reversed shear tokamak can be described by a one and a half degree of freedom Hamiltonian system. In order to get insights into its dynamics we study numerically a global model for a Poincaré map associated to such a system. Mainly we investigate the scenario of reconnection of the invariant manifolds of two hyperbolic orbits of the same type n/m and show that it is a generic one. When the two Poincaré–Birkhoff chains involved in this process are aligned in phase, i.e. they are in a nongeneric position, a sequence of two saddle–center bifurcations occur in one of the chains, interfering with the former elliptic orbit of that chain, such that at the reconnection threshold the two chains are in a generic position. Dynamics around the new created configuration at the reconnection appears to vary from a regular motion to a chaotic one. In connection with the study of this global bifurcation we give the first example of region of instability in the dynamics of a nontwist map.