Researchers respond to comments on staged Z-pinch modeling of high and low atomic number liners compressing deuterium targets using parameters of the Z pulsed power facility. The author raises three major objections, such as incorrect physical interpretation, mathematical deficiencies in the computational approach, and artificial injection of energy into the MACH2 code simulations. As the magnetic field develops on the surface of the Z-pinch, it starts diffusing inside the liner plasma, and subsequently, into the fuel plasma. In a magnetized plasma, there are two normal modes that can generate radially propagating shock waves The shock waves are generated at the vacuum/liner boundary, which propagate radially inward and stagnate at the interface of the liner and fuel plasma. Next, secondary shock waves are generated, which propagate into the fuel plasma and reflect between the axis and the interface. It is these secondary shock waves that preheat the plasma to above 100 eV, a process observed in the simulations and reported in the RNR2 paper.
