Mitigation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in HED conditions by a strong external magnetic field*

The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) is ubiquitous in the Universe, governing coronal mass ejections as well as planetary magnetospheres. In HED and ICF, KHI is encountered in hohlraum wall plasmas and during the late phase of evolution of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability spikes. We present a novel platform developed on OMEGA for exploring the magnetized Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in HED conditions. While the stabilizing effect of a tangential magnetic field along the velocity shear is well known since Chandrasekhar’s book, few experimental validations exist in the literature. Based on recent numerical studies [1], we show theoretically how a strong external magnetic field (40 T) could mitigate the instability in blast wave flow conditions. Taking advantage of dual MIFEDS development on OMEGA recent results of the magKHI platform commissioning will be presented. Future plans for leveraging this platform to investigate KHI in supersonic sustained flows conditions are discussed. This project have deep implications across a wide range of HED physics research, including laboratory astrophysics, mix studies, and magnetized ICF designs.