Energetics and heating of high current imploding Z-pinches

Summary form only given, as follows. Summary form only given. As in the Sun´s corona, the exact heating method by which magnetic energy is converted to heat and radiation in Z-pinch implosions is still an open issue. Recent long implosion time wire array experiments with aluminum and tungsten have both indicated very efficient conversion of stored electrical energy to soft X-ray emission. Indeed, the radiated energies exceed by three times the expected upper limit of an idealized 0-D implosion kinetic energy. Previously, anomalous resistivity had been considered to explain additional energy input to the plasma above the expected kinetic energy upper limit. More recently, two-dimensional MHD simulations indicated that standard ohmic plus pdV heating coupled with instability modified thermalization of radial kinetic energy could explain the radiated output of 100 ns implosions. New results yet again challenge our ability to calculate the energy budget. We will discuss the results from the experiments and compare those to one- and two-dimensional MHD calculations. The roles of resistivity, magnetic bubbles and m=0 and m=1 instabilities will be considered.