Nonlinear MHD simulations of the gravitational ballooning mode close to marginal stability

The ballooning mode is thought to play a key role in the mechanism which drives the problematic edge localized modes in tokamak plasmas, and possibly in other plasma eruptions, such as in the magnetosphere. We investigate the essential nonlinear physics of this mode by simulating an instability driven by gravity in a slab of magnetized plasma; magnetic field curvature plays a similar role in toroidal confinement systems. Full ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations are performed, which exhibit three distinct phases of the mode's evolution: (I) a linear phase that agrees well with the predictions of linear ideal MHD; (II) a non-linear regime where the instantaneous growth rate evolves, and is somewhat lower than the linear value and (III) an explosive plasma eruption. These regimes are characterized and compared with the predictions of analytic nonlinear theory, considering cases that are close to and far from marginal stability. Evidence of a subcritical instability is demonstrated in phase II where, provided the mode's amplitude is large enough, it can develop into an eruption even for values of gravity that give linear stability. The drop in growth rate during phase II depends on the strength of the linear drive, demonstrating that the initial phases of the nonlinear evolution are also dependent on the strength of the linear drive. To extend the calculations deeper into the nonlinear regime a four-field reduced MHD model is developed, which reproduces the same features as the full ideal MHD system.