Numerical Study of Plasma Rayleigh-Taylor Instability with External Magnetic Field

In this study, we investigate the effects of externally imposed magnetic field, B₀, on the suppression of Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) under ICF deceleration stage conditions. The numerical results, using a two-fluid plasma model with full magnetic field dependent molecular transport, reveal that the rapid growth of self-generated magnetic field and current density in the early (linear) stage of RTI are primarily caused by the stretching or bending of B_0. For simulations with weak B₀ or large reference plasma beta β₀, RTI can grow into nonlinear stage in which the peak value of self-generated magnetic field is about two order magnitude larger than that of B₀. However, when β₀ is below a critical value, the magnetic torque can completely offset the baroclinic torque in vortex generation, which fully inhibits RTI development beyond the linear stage. Our study also discovers that, for suppressing RTI development, imposing B₀ in the horizontal direction is more effective than that in the vertical direction and the critical values of β₀ found for B₀ imposed in the horizontal and vertical directions are about 100 and 1, respectively.