Influence of higher-order harmonics on the saturation of the tearing mode

The nonlinear saturation of the tearing mode is revisited in slab geometry by taking into account higher-order harmonics in the outer solution. The general formalism for tackling this problem in the case of a vanishing current gradient at the resonant surface is derived. It is shown that, although the higher-order harmonics lead to corrections in the final saturation equation, they are of higher order in the perturbation parameter, which provides a formal proof that the standard one-harmonic approach is asymptotically correct.