Implosion stability and limitations on hollow plasma liners

Liner-implosion instabilities, in particular, the hydromagnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability, are a major question in power concentration and may limit the parameter space in which pulsed electrical energy can be efficiently used. Previously reported simple analytic results indicating the existence of a minimum allowed wavelength are rederived and are verified by two-dimensional MHD calculations. The number of linear e-foldings of this mode, assuming a square current wave form, is then used as a figure of merit for implosion stability. It is shown that this significantly limits design options. (author)