Nonlinear stabilization and nonrandom behavior of macroinstabilities in plasmas. II. Numerical verification

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Abstract
To verify the nonlinear theory of electrostatic macroinstabilities in magnetized plasmas, with special emphasis on the amplitude oscillation, numerical calculations were made for a two-dimensional, weakly ionized plasma with a density gradient and crossed electric and magnetic fields (cross-field instability), which is found to be a suitable plasma to yield an amplitude oscillation. It is shown that, on the average, the unstable mode is stabilized by the reduction of the density gradient but, in detail, exhibits an oscillation in amplitude in conjunction with oscillation in density and potential distributions. It is also shown that nonlinear higher modes excited by the dominant mode suffer strong amplitude oscillations. Theoretical interpretation of such strong amplitude oscillations is considered.