Abstract
A circularly polarized, large-amplitude Alfvén wave in a plasma with
finite plasma ß becomes parametrically unstable under specific plasma
conditions, in which the pump wave will decay into several daughter
waves with different wavenumbers and frequencies. Magnetohydrodynamic
simulations have been conducted to investigate the evolution of the
parametric decay process, using the MRCv3 code. This code is based on
the computational library libMRC, which provides a number of numerical
methods that solve MHD and extended-MHD models. For the MRCv3
simulations, a uniform Cartesian grid with periodic boundary conditions
is used, with the assumptions of no background flow and a uniform
background plasma density ρ and magnetic field B0. Results from these
simulations will be presented, discussed, and compared to previous
numerical and analytic results.