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  • Open Access

Bubble and spike reacceleration in nonlinear, single mode, two-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor instability

A. R. Piriz1,*, S. A. Piriz2,†, N. A. Tahir3, and F. Cobos2

  • *Contact author: roberto.piriz@uclm.es
  • †Contact author: sofiaayelen.piriz@uclm.es
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APS Open Sci. 1, 000149 – Published 23 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/px86-rwx6

Abstract

A theoretical model is presented for the reacceleration process of the bubble and the spike that follows after the velocity saturation phase in the nonlinear, single-mode, two-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor instability in ideal media. A previous irrotational model is extended to include the vorticity effects consistently with the existing evidence that vorticity drains momentum from the translational motion. Contradictions and paradoxes arising from the current paradigm based on the acceleration by the vortices centrifugal force are solved. The model shows that the time when the reacceleration occurs depends on the density ratio between both fluids, and that it is determined by achieving the corresponding final widths of the bubble and the spike, which thereafter remains constant.

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APS Open Sci. 1, 000149– Published 23 September, 2026
Vol. 1
  • Received 8 March 2026
  • Revised 11 August 2026
  • Accepted 2 September 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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