Ion kinetic effects on the evolution of Richtmyer–Meshkov instability and interfacial mix

Abstract

Plasma effects, such as the multi-component kinetic diffusion and self-generated electromagnetic fields, are recognized as a pivotal key to understanding the physics of interface evolution in inertial confinement fusion and supernova remnants. In this work, a two-dimensional hybrid fluid-PIC code is used to investigate the ion kinetic effects of the single-mode Richtmyer–Meshkov instability (RMI) at the interface between hydrogen plasma and carbon plasma. After an electrostatic shockwave passing through the perturbed interface, the RMI, which reshapes the interface, grows via the vorticity depositing as well as the self-generated magnetic field. After scaling the growth of the interfacial mix region with time, the density transition layer has been found to exceed the disturbance wavelength and lead to a suppression of the instability evolution finally.

Keywords

• Richtmyer–Meshkov instability
• electrostatic shock
• interfacial mix
• ion kinetic effects