A route to deterministic chaos in the dynamics of SU(2) Yang-Mills fields

The dynamics of uniform SU(2) Yang-Mills fields (both free fields and fields interacting with a Higgs condensate) is studied by the Poincare surface-of-section method and the method of Lyapunov`s maximum exponents. It is shown that, for free Yang-Mill fields, the route to fully developed chaos lies through a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations and that interaction with a Higgs condensate substantially simplifies the scenario of this transition. 12 refs., 1 fig.