Nonlinear saturated states of the magnetic-curvature-driven Rayleigh–Taylor instability in three dimensions

Abstract

Three-dimensional electromagnetic fluid simulations of the magnetic-curvature-driven Rayleigh–Taylor instability are presented. Issues related to the existence of nonlinear saturated states and the nature of the temporal evolution to such states from random initial conditions are addressed. It is found that nonlinear saturated states arising from generation of zonal shear flows continue to exist in certain parametric domains but their spectrum and spatial characteristics have important differences from earlier two-dimensional results reported in Phys. Plasmas 4, 1018 (1997) and Phys. Plasmas 8, 5104 (2001). In particular, the three-dimensional nonlinear states possess a significant power level in short scales and the spatial structures of the potential and density fluctuations appear not to develop any functional correlations. Electromagnetic effects are found to inhibit the formation of zonal flows and thereby to considerably restrict the parametric domain of nonlinear stabilization. The role of finite k‖ and the contribution of the unstable drift wave branch are also discussed and delineated through a number of simulation studies carried out in special simplified limits.