Time derivatives of the phases ϕ ± k for C = 1 case with k = (0, 1.125) and p = (−0.5, −1.0), corresponding to nonlinear frequencies. Notice that while dϕ − q /dt appears to oscillate wildly, since its amplitude χ − q is vanishingly small, as can be seen in figure 4, these oscillations are not important for the rest of the dynamics.

Hasegawa-Wakatani system, commonly used as a toy model of dissipative drift waves in fusion devices is revisited with considerations of phase and amplitude dynamics of its triadic interactions. It is observed that a single resonant triad can saturate via three way phase locking where the phase differences between dominant modes converge to constant...