Ablative stabilization in the incompressible Rayleigh–Taylor instability

Ablative Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities are analyzed in terms of an incompressible fluid model. A generalized surface wave dispersion relation can be derived for arbitrary step-profiles with ablative mass and heat flow. A systematic overview on different regimes of ablative stabilization and growth reduction is given. Convective stabilization by the incoming and outcoming flows are found included as upper and lower limits on the instability growth. Applications for self-consistent steady-state conditions are discussed and a comparison is made with previous numerical work.