Determining the Self-Similar Stage of the Rayleigh-Taylor Instability via LLNL's NIF Discovery Science Experiments

We report a novel measurement of the late time self-similar growth constant ${\alpha }_B$ of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) from controlled initial perturbations. To this end, we have developed a laser-driven experiment, fielded on the National Ignition Facility (NIF), to explore deeply non-linear, multimode hydrodynamic growth of a planar interface. The measured value is ${\alpha }_B=0.038\pm 0.008$, which is consistent with previously reported 2D simulations and closer to previously reported 3D simulations. This resolved the known discrepancy between experiments and simulations of RTI.