Complexity, magnetic field topology, criticality, and metastability in magnetotail dynamics

Recently, it has been shown that certain features of magnetotail dynamics in response to solar wind changes may resemble the behavior of a complex system near a dynamical critical state (Chang, Phys. Plasmas 6 (1999) 4137; Consolini and Chang, Space Sci. Rev. 95 (2001) 309), and of topological phase transitions (Chang, Phys. Scr. (2001), 80). Moreover, the impulsive part of the magnetotail response seems to be well described by cellular automata and other simulation models displaying criticality. Here, the relevance of the magnetic field topological disorder will be discussed in connection with observed complexity and near-criticality, showing how the impulsive character of the magnetotail response could be viewed as fluctuation-induced topological transitions among metastable configurations of magnetic field topology. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.