Publications

Based on a detailed experimental characterization of the complex dynamics of a Ne discharge tube, a new phenomenological model governed by four differential equations is proposed. Such a model takes into account the competition between a nonlinear relaxation oscillator related with external electronic features and a forced harmonic oscillator accounting for the plasma eigenfrequency. From their interaction the quasi periodicity route to chaos emerges as confirmed by the experimental observations. In the control parameter space, stability diagrams for periodic oscillations of arbitrary period are computed using the isospike technique and compared with standard diagrams of Lyapunov exponents. Such diagrams reveal complex patterns of stability phases with extended regions of multistabilty.