Effects of lower boundary conditions on the stability of radiative shocks

Abstract

Thermal instabilities can cause a radiative shock to oscillate, thereby modulating the emission from the post-shock region. The mode frequencies are approximately quantised in analogy to those of a vibrating pipe. The stability properties depend on the cooling processes, the electron-ion energy exchange and the boundary conditions. This paper considers the effects of the lower boundary condition on the post-shock flow, both ideally and for some specific physical models. Specific cases include constant perturbed velocity, pressure, density, flow rate, or temperature at the lower boundary, and the situation with nonzero stationary flow velocity at the lower boundary. It is found that for cases with zero terminal stationary velocity, the stability properties are insensitive to the perturbed hydrodynamic variables at the lower boundary. The luminosity responses are generally dependent on the lower boundary condition.