Suppression of rayleigh-taylor instability by gyroviscosity and sheared axial flow in imploding plasma pinches

The synergistic stabilizing effect of gyroviscosity and sheared axial flow on the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in Z-pinch implosions is studied by means of the incompressible viscid magneto-hydrodynamic equations. The gyroviscosity (or finite Larmor radius) effects are introduced in the momentum equation through an anisotropic ion stress tensor. Dispersion relation with the effect of a density discontinuity is derived. The results indicate that the short-wavelength modes of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability are easily stabilized by the gyroviscosity effects. The long wavelength modes are stabilized by the sufficient sheared axial flow. However; the synergistic effects of the finite Larmor radius and sheared axial flow can heavily mitigate the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. This synergistic effect can compress the Rayleigh-Taylor instability to a narrow wave number region. Even with a sufficient gyroviscosity and large enough flow velocity, the synergistic effect can completely suppressed the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in whole wave number region. (authors)