Parametric instability of a large-amplitude nonmonochromatic Alfvén wave

The parametric instability of a finite-amplitude Alfvén wave is studied in a one-dimensional geometry. The pump wave is an exact solution of the nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations, i.e., the magnetic field perturbation has a uniform intensity and rotates in the plane perpendicular to the propagation direction, but its Fourier spectrum contains several wavelengths. The weakly nonmonochromatic regime is first studied by an analytical approach. It is shown that the growth rate of the instability decreases quadratically with a parameter that measures the departure from the monochromatic case. The fully nonmonochromatic case is studied by numerically solving the instability equations, when the phase function of the pump wave has a power-law spectrum. Though the growth rate is maximum in the monochromatic case, it remains of the same order of magnitude also for wide spectrum pump waves. For quasimonochromatic waves the correction to the growth rate depends only on the spectral index of the phase function.