On the One-dimensional Stability of Viscous Strong Detonation Waves

Building on Evans function techniques developed to study the stability of viscous shocks, we examine the stability of viscous strong detonation wave solutions of the reacting Navier-Stokes equations. The primary result, following the work of Alexander, Gardner & Jones and Gardner & Zumbrun, is the calculation of a stability index whose sign determines a necessary condition for spectral stability. We show that for an ideal gas this index can be evaluated in the ZND limit of vanishing dissipative effects. Moreover, when the heat of reaction is sufficiently small, we prove that strong detonations are spectrally stable provided the underlying shock is stable. Finally, for completeness, the stability index calculations for the nonreacting Navier-Stokes equations are included