We show that on-off intermittency in solar and stellar cycles is a result of amplitude-phase synchronization in multiscale interactions in solar/stellar dynamos or magnetorotational instability which leads to the formation of kinematic and magnetic coherent structures, and the novel techniques of Lagrangian coherent structures can detect transport barriers and vortices such as magnetic flux tubes/ropes in solar and stellar turbulence with high accuracy.

A nonlinear plasma model which may account for temporal modulation of pulsar radio pulses is presented. Envelope solitons and envelope nonlinear wave trains can result from the nonlinear interaction of the high-frequency coherent pulsar radiation with the pulsar magnetosphere. Theories of electromagnetic envelope solitons and electromagnetic envelope nonlinear wave trains in electronpositron plasmas are reviewed. The application of this model for observation of pulsar microstructures is discussed.

Electron cyclotron maser emission is an accepted physical mechanism for generating coherent planetary and stellar radio emissions. Observational data has indicated evidence of nonlinear and chaotic temporal variability in some cosmic masers such as solar microwave spikes. The nonlinear and chaotic characteristics of cosmic masers can be attributed to plasma turbulence, such as Alfvén chaos, embedded in the emission region. We report a chaos theory of Alfvén waves which can account for chaotic acceleration of electrons in the source region of cosmic masers. Two types of Alfvén intermittency are identified: Pomeau-Manneville intermittency and crisis-induced intermittency. Since Alfvén waves may be responsible for accelerating electrons that emit maser radiations, the chaotic dynamics of Alfvén waves may be the origin of chaotic time variations of cosmic masers. Hence, we suggest that Alfvén intermittency may cause intermittent temporal fluctuations which can be observed in cosmic masers.

Langmuir turbulence plays an important role in electron heating and generation of plasma emission in accretion disks of active galactic nuclei. The nonlinear dynamical behavior of Langmuir turbulence and its relevance in the interpretation of AGN variability is discussed. In particular, we study nonlinear saturation of the Langmuir stimulated modulational instability, for which the low-frequency mode is a resonant ion-acoustic wave. The nonlinear system of coupled wave equations is shown to undergo transition from order to chaos via the route of quasiperiodicity. The periodic, quasiperiodic and chaotic variabilities in AGN emissions may be the electromagnetic signatures of the ordered and chaotic states of Langmuir turbulence in accretion disks or jets of AGN.

Eulerian and Lagrangian tools are used to detect coherent structures in the velocity and magnetic fields of a mean-field dynamo, produced by direct numerical simulations of the three-dimensional compressible magnetohydrodynamic equations with an isotropic helical forcing and moderate Reynolds number. Two distinct stages of the dynamo are studied: the kinematic stage, where a seed magnetic field undergoes exponential growth; and the saturated regime. It is shown that the Lagrangian analysis detects structures with greater detail, in addition to providing information on the chaotic mixing properties of the flow and the magnetic fields. The traditional way of detecting Lagrangian coherent structures using finite-time Lyapunov exponents is compared with a recently developed method called function $M$ . The latter is shown to produce clearer pictures which readily permit the identification of hyperbolic regions in the magnetic field, where chaotic transport/dispersion of magnetic field lines is highly enhanced.

We apply single- and multi-spacecraft techniques to search for currents sheets in the solar wind during the ICME event of 21 January 2005, using the Cluster magnetic field data. Two large-scale currents sheets are detected at the leading boundary of the ICME ejecta using the single-spacecraft technique, which exhibit physical characteristics typical of magnetic reconnection exhausts in the solar wind.

We apply two nonlinear techniques, kurtosis and phase coherence index, to analyze magnetic field measurements from SOHO MDI solar images, ACE and Cluster data in the solar wind, and ground magnetometers in Brazil. We focus on two events: a non-ICME event in February 2002 and an ICME event in January 2005. Finite degree of non-Gaussianity and phase synchronization are observed in all datasets. The nonlinear response of the Earth's geomagnetic field to an ICME event in the solar wind is discussed.

A new generation mechanism for electromagnetic waves near the fundamental plasma frequency is discussed. It is shown that a travelling Langmuir pump wave can nonlinearly convert into electromagnetic, Langmuir and ion-acoustic daughter waves via a hybrid stimulated modulational instability. The linear and nonlinear temporal dynamics of this modulational process involving coupling to a resonant ion-acoustic wave are studied. The wave energy conservation relations are derived. The roles of frequency mismatch, dissipation and wave dispersion in the temporal evolution of nonlinear coupling of two wave triplets are analysed.