REFRACTION OF A HERBIG-HARO JET TRAVELLING THROUGH A SHEAR LAYER

Abstract

We study the problem of a radiative Herbig-Haro (HH) jet which travels through a slip surface into a region of side-streaming environment. The interaction with the streaming environment produces an oblique shock that deflects the jet beam. A simple, analytic model for this shock gives the jet deflection as a function of the incidence angle and the environment-to-jet ram pressure ratio. We find that in the case of higher environmental ram pressure, for a high enough incidence angle, the jet stalls and does not penetrate substantially into the streaming environment. We present 3D gas dynamic simulations illustrating the jet deflection and stalling regimes. Possible applications to HH jets showing sudden deflections in their propagation are discussed.