Negative Energy Modes and Gravitational Instability of Interpenetrating Fluids

Abstract

We study the longitudinal instabilities of two interpenetrating fluids interacting only through gravity. When one of the constituents is of relatively low density, it is possible to have a band of unstable wave numbers well separated from those involved in the usual Jeans instability. If the initial streaming is large enough, and there is no linear instability, the indefinite sign of the free energy has the possible consequence of explosive interactions between positive and negative energy modes in the nonlinear regime. The effect of dissipation on the negative energy modes is also examined.