Exponential Growth of Nonlinear Ballooning Instability

Journal Article · Fri Jun 12 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.102.235003· OSTI ID:21319497

Zhu, P; Hegna, C C; Sovinec, C R ^[1]

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1. Center for Plasma Theory and Computation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)

Recent ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) theory predicts that a perturbation evolving from a linear ballooning instability will continue to grow exponentially in the intermediate nonlinear phase at the same linear growth rate. This prediction is confirmed in ideal MHD simulations. When the Lagrangian compression, a measure of the ballooning nonlinearity, becomes of the order of unity, the intermediate nonlinear phase is entered, during which the maximum plasma displacement amplitude as well as the total kinetic energy continues to grow exponentially at the rate of the corresponding linear phase.

• OSTI ID: 21319497
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 23 Vol. 102; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BALLOONING INSTABILITY
KINETIC ENERGY
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PERTURBATION THEORY
PLASMA
SIMULATION