Classical Rayleigh Taylor experiments on Nova

The evolution of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability in a compressible medium was investigated both at an accelerating embedded interface and at the ablation front in a new series of experiments on Nova. The x-ray drive generated in a hohlraum ablatively accelerated a planar target consisting of a doped plastic pusher which was in some cases backed by a higher density titanium payload. Both target types were diagnosed by face-on and side-on radiography. Experiments have been done with a variety of wavelengths and initial amplitudes. In the case where the perturbed RT-unstable embedded interface is isolated from the ablation front, short wavelength perturbations are observed to grow strongly. When the perturbation is at the ablation front, the short wavelengths are observed to be severely stabilized