Understanding turbulence in compressing plasma as a quasi-EOS

Inspired by experimental Z-pinch results, we investigate plasma turbulence undergoing compression. In addition to Z-pinches, plasma turbulence can be compressed in a range of natural and laboratory settings, including inertial fusion experiments and astrophysical molecular clouds. The plasma viscosity, when modeled as described by Braginskii, depends strongly on both temperature and ionization state, giving it the possibility to have a large range of behavior. Here, we highlight the importance of viscous variation in these settings, as well as various insights that can be gained by considering this variation. Included are a "sudden viscous dissipation" effect that leads to a new concept for inertial fusion or X-ray bursts and a bound on turbulent energy behavior under compression. This bound, which was previously applied in inviscid molecular cloud turbulence, is here shown in an application to turbulence that transitions from inviscid to viscous regimes. The task of understanding turbulence under compression can be cast as the process of seeking a "quasi equation of state" for turbulent energy under compression.