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Updated: Jan 2, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Laser-Produced Magnetic-Rayleigh-Taylor Unstable Plasma Slabs in a 20 T Magnetic Field
B Khiar1,2, G Revet3,4, A Ciardi1
1Sorbonne Université, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, LERMA, CNRS UMR 8112, F-75005 Paris, France.
Abstract:
Magnetized laser-produced plasmas are central to many novel laboratory astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion studies, as well as in industrial applications. Here we provide the first complete description of the three-dimensional dynamics of a laser-driven plasma plume expanding in a 20 T transverse magnetic field. The plasma is collimated by the magnetic field into a slender, rapidly elongating slab, whose plasma-vacuum interface is unstable to the growth of the "classical," fluidlike magnetized Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
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