Hydrodynamic instability of ionization fronts in HII regions

Abstract

We investigate hydrodynamic instability of accelerating ionization fronts with two dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. When recombination in the ionized region is turned off, Rayleigh-Taylor instability is effective. Perturbation grows up with classical Rayleigh-Taylor growth rate. In the case with recombination, the local difference of absorption profile works to smooth the surface. The perturbation does not grow and the amplitude follows a damped oscillations with time.