Identification of nonlinear effects of background asymmetry on solitary oscillations in a cylindrical plasma.

A symmetry-breaking in rotational spatial pattern of quasi-periodic solitary oscillations is revealed with tomography measurement of plasma emission, simultaneously with background asymmetry in stationary plasma structure. Although the oscillatory pattern deformation is a natural course in the presence of asymmetry, elaborate analyses identify existence unfeatured nonlinear effects of the background asymmetry, i.e., its nonlinear couplings with harmonic modes of rotational symmetry, to produce non-harmonic mode to break the symmetry and cause the oscillatory pattern to be chaotic. The findings suggest the unrecognized fundamental process for plasmas to be turbulent.