Self-consistent analytical model of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in inertial confinement fusion

The model presented overcomes past inconsistencies by applying matching asymptotic techniques. The obtained growth rate, γ≅α(k)√kg-2kνa (where νa is the ablation velocity), could reproduce numerical simulations and experiments in a more complete way than the so-called Takabe formula γ=0.9√kg-3kνa. Here α(k)≡[1-(k/kc)r]1/2, represents the stabilization heat conduction effect and the cutoff wave number kc is much smaller than the inverse of the density scale length at the ablation front. Such a rigorously derived stabilization mechanism is the correct interpretation which underlies many of the numerical, analytical and simulation results found in the literature. copyright 1996 The American Physical Society