Rayleigh-Taylor Instabilities in Young Supernova Remnants Undergoing Efficient Particle Acceleration

Abstract

We employ hydrodynamic simulations to study the effects of high shock compression ratios, as expected for fast shocks with efficient particle acceleration, on the convective instability of driven waves in supernova remnants. We find that the instability itself does not depend significantly on the compression ratio, but because the width of the interaction region between the forward and reverse shocks can shrink significantly with increasing shock compression, we find that convective instabilities can reach all the way to the forward shock front if compression ratios are high enough.