North-Holland, Amsterdam NONLINEAR DYNAMOS: A COMPLEX GENERALIZATION OF THE LORENZ EQUATIONS

Plane nonlinear dynamo waves can be described by a sixth order system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations which is a complex generalization of the Lorenz system. In the regime of interest for modelling magnetic activity in stars there is a sequence of bifurcations, ending in chaos, as a stability parameter D (the dynamo number) is increased. We show that solutions undergo three successive Hopf bifurcations, followed by a transition to chaos. The system possesses a symmetry and can therefore be reduced to a fifth order system, with trajectories that he on a 2-torus after the third bifurcation. As D is then increased, frequency locking occurs, followed by a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations that leads to chaos. This behaviour is probably caused by the Shil’nikov mechanism, with a (conjectured) homoclimc orbit when D is infinite. 1