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We have performed moderate resolution three-dimensional simulations of low density jets using ZEUS-3D. These jets, with parameters believed to be suitable for powerful radio galaxies, emerge from the atmospheres of active galaxies and then cross into a hotter, but less dense, intracluster medium. Our earlier two-dimensional simulations led to results on instabilities in slow jets and the rate of jet advance within galactic halos that were in good agreement with analytical approximations, and also gave rise to estimates for the continued expansion and fading of radio sources whose source of plasma was terminated. We have also found that in 2-D simulations new hot spots could form behind plasmoids that pinched off due to slowly growing instabilities. We are now investigating these effects in the context of 3-D computations that break our earlier assumption of axisymmetry. If no perturbations are explicitly added, we find that initially cylindrical jets continue to propagate stably for significant periods after crossing the ISM/ICM interface, though the computations cannot yet be extended to the very long times followed while assuming axisymmetry. Results from new simulations which introduce a perturbation by having jets cross interfaces that are not perpendicular to their original directions of propagation will also be presented.
