Determine the effect of ion charge on plasma RMI evolution

Determine whether the ion charge has a unique effect on the evolution of the multi-fluid plasma Richtmyer–Meshkov instability and its associated secondary instabilities.

Background

The paper identifies two principal parameters governing the severity of the multi-fluid plasma Richtmyer–Meshkov instability: the density ratio across the initial electron-fluid interface and the plasma Debye length. It also compares the thermal RMI and the lithium-based species RMI, which have the same electron-fluid density ratio but different ion properties, including ion charge.

Those comparisons reveal differences in interface narrowing, shock refraction, and the number of secondary perturbations, suggesting that ion charge may influence the instability evolution. However, the paper does not establish whether ion charge itself is responsible for these differences, because other ion properties—particularly ion temperature and the resulting shock-refraction behavior—also vary between the cases.