Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
The effect of finite spectral width on the modulational instability of Alfvén waves described by the derivative nonlinear Schrodinger equation is investigated using a method developed by Alber to derive a transport equation for the spectral density. The dispersion relation for a monochromatic wave is regained for a delta spectrum. It is shown that the growth rate and domain of modulational instability diminish as the spectral width increases for both the Gaussian and uniform spectrums.