Investigation of Global MHD Instabilities in Multi-component Z-pinch Plasma

Summary form only given. In the process of plasma ablation from wires in a wire array, consisting of deuterium and palladium, plasma in the precursor consists of heavy and light ions. In this multi-component current carrying plasma global MHD instabilities can develop. Dependence of the growth rates of such instabilities from the density ratio of heavy and light ions as well as kinetic energy partition between the two plasma components is discussed. We also present results of 3D hybrid simulations of sausage and kink instabilities in the multi-component plasma of the precursor.