  The chaotic dissipative dynamics of a charged particle in the field of three
plane waves is theoretically (Melnikov's method) and numerically (Lyapunov
exponents) investigated. In particular, the effectiveness of one of such waves
in controlling the chaotic dynamics induced by the remaining two waves is
theoretically predicted and numerically confirmed. Two mechanisms underlying
the chaos-suppression scenario are identified. One mechanism requires
chaos-inducing and chaos-suppressing waves to have both commensurate
wavelengths and commensurate relative (with respect to the remaining third
wave) phase velocities, while the other mechanism allows the chaotic dynamics
to be tamed when such quantities are incommensurate. The present findings may
be directly applied to several important problems in plasma physics, including
that of the chaos-induced destruction of magnetic surfaces in tokamaks.
