BGK states from the bump-on-tail instability

Numerical computations are presented of the BGK-like states that emerge beyond the saturation of the bump-on-tail instability in the Vlasov–Poisson system. The stability of these states towards subharmonic perturbations is explored in order to gauge whether the primary bump-on-tail instability always suffers a secondary instability that precipitates wave mergers and coarsening of the BGK pattern. Because the onset of the bump-on-tail instability occurs at finite wavenumber, and the spatially homogeneous state is not itself unstable to spatial subharmonics, it is demonstrated that mergers and coarsening do not always occur, and the dynamics displays a richer spatio-temporal complexity.