A minimum-hypothesis explanation for the Radcliffe Wave: Kelvin-Helmholtz instability

Abstract

It is suggested that the wavelike character of the recently discovered 2.7-kiloparsec spatially and kinematically coherent complex of interstellar clouds in the solar neighborhood--the Radcliffe Wave--may be the result of a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability arising at the interface between the Galactic disk and non-corotating halo.