Simulations of magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth in liner implosions at the Z facility

The magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability (MRTI) is a common feature of Z-pinch liner implosions, since the magnetic pressure driving the implosion also drives hydrodynamic instability growth at the outer liner surface. In the magnetized liner induced fusion (MagLIF) concept [1], MRTI can cause the liner to break up in-flight, degrading its ability to compress the fusion fuel. We present magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a series of experiments [2] at the Z-facility studying MRTI growth in metallic liner implosions with pre-machined sinusoidal initial conditions. We compare the instability amplitude growth and evolution of MRTI structure from the experimental radiographic images with synthetic data from multi-physics simulations in the ARES code. The role of the low density vacuum plasma, including the importance of anomalous resistivity, will be assessed.