Adiabatic self-similar blast waves, their radial instabilities, and their application to supernova remnants

Journal Article · Sat Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 1977 · Astrophys. J.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1086/155607· OSTI ID:5352319

Isenberg, P A

It is shown that adiabatic self-similar motion resulting from a strong spherical explosion in a medium with density rho/sub 0/=Ar/sup -omega/is unstable to radial perturbations of arbitrary amplitude when ..omega..<..omega../sub -/,..omega..>..omega../sub +/, or ..omega..< (5..gamma..-4)/..gamma.., where ..omega../sub plus-or-minus/(5..gamma../sup 2/+6..gamma..-31)(..gamma.. (..gamma..-1)/2)/sup 1/2/ +- (11..gamma../sup 3/+18..gamma../sup 2/-33..gamma..-8) ) x (..gamma..-1)/sup -1/) (..gamma..-3)(..gamma.. (..gamma..-1)/2)/sup 1/2/ +- (2..gamma../sup 2/-3..gamma..-1) )/sup -1/ and ..gamma.. is the adiabatic index of the gas. When ..omega../sub -/<..omega..<..omega../sub +/ and ..omega..> (5..gamma..-4)/..gamma.., instability has not been proved or disproved. This result indicates that physical systems subject to these instabilities do not evolve to the self-similar state from the initial chaotic explosion. It is also shown that many self-similar systems violate the adiabatic and single-fluid assumptions which are made in deriving the motion. The usual model taken to apply to the evolution of supernova remnants (..omega..=0, ..gamma..=5/3) is unstable and violates both the adiabatic and one-fluid assumptions. Thus, supernova remnants cannot be evolving in an adiabatic self-similar manner, though further quantitative analysis is needed to determine the magnitude of the deviations.

• Research Organization: Department of Physics, University of Chicago
• OSTI ID: 5352319
• Journal Information: Astrophys. J.; (United States), Journal Name: Astrophys. J.; (United States) Vol. 217:2; ISSN ASJOA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640102* -- Astrophysics &amp; Cosmology-- Stars &amp; Quasi-Stellar
Radio &amp; X-Ray Sources
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ADIABATIC PROCESSES
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
DISTURBANCES
EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS OF STATE
FLUID FLOW
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
INSTABILITY
MECHANICS
SHOCK WAVES
STABILITY
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS