Anisentropic, Magnetized Kelvin-Helmholtz and Related Instabilities in the Interstellar Medium
Abstract
In the vortex-sheet limit a generalized theory is developed which blends the theory of compressible magnetized Kelvin-Holmholtz (KH) instabilities with the classical astrophysical theory of thermal instabilities. Unstable KH modes can grow more rapidly than in their corresponding adiabatic limits, and a fundamental new instability, the thermal-dynamic instability, often dominates over the maximum KH growths at intermediate to large Mach numbers. At typical flow velocities in the ISM, the thermal-dynamic instability may result in the development of structures in molecular clouds near the interfaces between the clouds and H I regions flowing past them.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
- Pub Date:
- December 1989
- DOI:
- 10.1086/191397
- Bibcode:
- 1989ApJS...71..777H
- Keywords:
-
- Computational Astrophysics;
- Interstellar Matter;
- Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability;
- Star Formation;
- Thermal Instability;
- Adiabatic Conditions;
- Hydrogen Clouds;
- Interstellar Magnetic Fields;
- Mach Number;
- Molecular Clouds;
- Astrophysics;
- HYDROMAGNETICS;
- INSTABILITIES;
- INTERSTELLAR: MATTER;
- NEBULAE: INTERNAL MOTIONS;
- STARS: FORMATION