Theory of the Ablative Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability

Theory of the ablative Richtmyer-Meshkov instability is presented. It is shown that the main stabilizing mechanism of the ablation-front perturbations during the shock transit time is the dynamic overpressure that causes perturbation oscillations. The amplitude of the oscillation is proportional to ${c}_{s}/\sqrt{{V}_{a}{V}_{\mathrm{bl}}}$ and its frequency is $\ensuremath{\omega}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}k\sqrt{{V}_{a}{V}_{\mathrm{bl}}}$, where $k$ is the wave number, and ${c}_{s}$, ${V}_{a}$, and ${V}_{\mathrm{bl}}$ are sound speed, ablation, and blow-off plasma velocities, respectively.