Rayleigh-Taylor instability of a self-similar spherical expansion

The self-similar motion of a spherically symmetric isentropic cloud of ideal gas driven outward by an expanding low-density medium (e.g., radiation pressure from a pulsar) is shown to be unstable to Rayleigh-Taylor modes which develop in the neighborhood of the interface. A complete solution of the linearized equations of motion is obtained. The implications for astrophysical phenomena are discussed.