Controlling the Seeding and In-Flight Evolution of the Magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

这个项目将测试通过等离子体的电流脉冲来有效压缩和加热等离子体的新想法。这样的脉冲可以产生强大的电磁场，然后挤压和加热等离子体。不稳定性会导致等离子体分裂成团块，从而限制圆柱体被挤压的程度。这个研究项目将测试降低等离子体不稳定性的新想法。在这个项目中获得的知识可以使更强大的x射线产生，更高压力的材料特性实验，更有效的核聚变产生，以及更好地理解天体物理过程。该项目将通过推进基础科学知识、实现未来能源和提高国防能力来造福社会。该项目还将有助于培养等离子体科学与工程领域的本科生和研究生，同时在学术界、工业界和国家实验室之间建立更牢固的伙伴关系。这个项目将研究圆柱形等离子体在被磁场强烈压缩时变得不稳定和分裂的方式。两个新的理论概念将在实验中得到检验。第一项研究将研究等离子体的不稳定性，当等离子体源是一个圆柱形金属箔，被强烈的电流脉冲蒸发和电离。本研究的目的是确定金属箔的材料性质如何影响不稳定性。实验将用各种箔材料进行，结果将与最近发展的理论的预测进行比较。第二项研究将研究等离子体被压缩时旋转磁力线方向的影响。最近发表的一项理论预测，累积不稳定性增长应减少一到两个数量级。将进行实验来检验这一理论。

This project will test new ideas for effective compression and heating of plasmas via pulses of electric current channeled through the plasma. Such pulses can create powerful electromagnetic fields which then squeeze and heat the plasma. Instabilities can limit how much a cylinder of plasma can be squeezed by causing the plasma to break up into clumps. This research project will test new ideas for reducing plasma instabilities. The knowledge gained in this project could enable more powerful x-ray generation, higher-pressure material properties experiments, more efficient nuclear fusion generation, and a better understanding of astrophysical processes. The project will benefit society by advancing basic scientific knowledge, enabling future energy sources, and improving the national defense capabilities. This project will also help to train a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students in plasma science and engineering while building stronger partnerships between academia, industry, and national laboratories.This project will investigate the way in which cylindrical plasmas become unstable and break apart when they are strongly compressed by a magnetic field. Two new theoretical concepts will be tested experimentally. The first study will investigate plasma instability when the plasma source is a cylindrical metal foil that has been vaporized and ionized by an intense pulse of electrical current. The goal of this study is to determine how the instability is affected by the material properties of the metal foil. Experiments will be conducted with various foil materials, and the results will be compared to predictions from a recently developed theory. The second study will investigate the effect of rotating the direction of the magnetic field lines as the plasma is compressed. A recently published theory predicts that the cumulative instability growth should be reduced by one to two orders of magnitude. Experiments will be conducted to test this theory.