Topological and metric analysis of heteroclinic crisis in laser chaos

The power-law behavior of the average time between intermittent bursts in the NMR-laser dynamics near a heteroclinic tangency crisis is investigated. Using symbolic-dynamical techniques, new crisis-induced sequences are identified in the strange attractors reconstructed from both experimental and simulated data. Our approach provides a precise criterion for the onset of the attractor widening due to the collision of the stable and the unstable manifold belonging to different unstable periodic orbits. The results show the predictability power of our laser model.