Separation of ions on the front of a shock wave in a multicomponent plasma

Abstract

The structure of a shock wave propagating in a plasma with two types of ions has been studied within the model of multifluid hydrodynamics based on the 13-moment system of Grad’s equations. Although the averaged dynamics of the shock front coincides with the single-component variant of the average-ion model, its structure is different at a noticeable difference between charge-to-mass ratios of different ions, demonstrating their separation on the shock front. For the problem of inertial confinement fusion, the range of parameters for which such a separation is important, as well as physical processes determining the two-component structure of the shock front, has been established.