a EURATOM/UKAEA Fusion Association, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3DB, UK
b Department of Physics, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
Abstract:
Techniques from complexity and criticality theory have fruitful applications to a wide range of natural and laboratory plasma systems. Here we review examples that have direct observational relevance, spanning fusion, the Earth's magnetosphere, the sun and astrophysical accretion disks. The complex systems techniques range from sandpiles to a novel loop-based dynamical model, together with modern approaches to model-independent data analysis.