2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/195910Plasma instabilities can play a fundamental role in plasma equilibration. There are similarities and differences between plasma instabilities in abelian and non-abelian gauge theories. In particular, it has been an open question whether non-abelian self-interactions are the limiting factor in the growth of non-abelian plasma instabilities. We study this problem with 3+1 dimensional numerical simulations. We find that non-abelian plasma instabilities behave very differently from abelian ones once they grow to be non-perturbatively large, in contrast with earlier results of 1+1 dimensional simulations. In particular, they grow more slowly at late times, with linear rather than exponential dependence of magnetic energy on time.28 pages, 22 figures [minor changes incorporated (including some minor typo fixes) to correspond to journal version]High Energy Physics - PhenomenologyHigh Energy Physics - LatticeNuclear Theorytext