Observation of self-similarity in the magnetic fields generated by the ablative nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor instability
L. Gao, P. M. Nilson, I. V. Igumenschev, G. Fiksel, R. Yan, J. R. Davies, D. Martinez, V. Smalyuk, M. G. Haines, Eric. G Blackman, D. H. Froula, R. Betti, and D. D. Meyerhofer
Accepted
Magnetic fields generated by the nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor growth of laser-seeded, three-dimensional broadband perturbations were measured in laser-accelerated planar targets using ultrafast proton radiography. The experimental data show self-similar behavior in the growing cellular magnetic field structures. These observations are consistent with a bubble competition and merger model that predicts the time evolution of the number and size of the bubbles, linking the cellular magnetic field structures with the Rayleigh-Taylor bubble and spike growth.