Modeling of Ion Thermalization in a Ne Gas Pinch

Understanding of the dynamics, population kinetics, and energy budget of a K-shell radiating Z pinch remains a challenging problem in high energy density plasma physics. Large ion kinetic energies have been reported for Ne pinches at $\sim $1 MA.\footnote{E. Kroupp, et al., PRL, 98, 115001 (2007), D. Osin, Ph.D. Thesis (2008).} The present work examines the dynamics of this pinch with a 1D radial magnetohydrodynamic simulation code including collisional-radiative ionization dynamics and radiation transport. Synthetic spectra from the simulations can match the measured H-like satellite line profiles if the ion-electron equilibration rate is reduced by a factor of $\sim $10. In anticipation of further experiments, radially resolved synthetic spectra of the satellite lines will also be presented to analyze the plasma structure at stagnation.