Chaotic convection in a ferrofluid

We report theoretical and numerical results on thermally driven convection of a magnetic suspension. The magnetic properties can be modeled as those of electrically non-conducting superparamagnets. We perform a truncated Galerkin expansion finding that the system can be described by a generalized Lorenz model. We characterize the dynamical system using different criteria such as Fourier power spectrum, bifurcation diagrams, and Lyapunov exponents. We find that the system exhibits multiple transitions between regular and chaotic behaviors in the parameter space. Transient chaotic behavior in time can be found slightly below their linear instability threshold of the stationary state.