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Session 15 - Interstellar Medium I.
Display session, Monday, January 15
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center
Explicit analytical criteria for nonlinear instability of general thermal structures constituted by a plasma of solar abundances are found. In particular, two cases are considered: (a) Atomic gas heated at a rate T^m and in the range of temperature 10^2 < T < ^8 K. (b) Molecular gas heated at a rate T^m, cooled at a rate exp(-T_*/T)/T^2 close to the temperature T_*. Specific conditions for catastrophic heating or cooling are obtained.
