Neutrino-driven convection versus advection in core-collapse supernovae

A toy model is analyzed in order to evaluate the linear stability of the gain region immediately behind a stalled accretion shock, after core bounce. This model demonstrates that a negative entropy gradient is not sufficient to warrant linear instability. The stability criterion is governed by the ratio chi of the advection time through the gain region divided by the local timescale of buoyancy. The gain region is linearly stable if chi < 3. The classical convective instability is recovered in the limit chi >> 33. For chi > 3, perturbations are unstable in a limited range of horizontal wavelengths centered around twice the vertical size H of the gain region. The threshold horizontal wavenumbers k(min) and k(max) follow simple scaling laws such that Hk(min) proportional to 1/chi and Hk(max) proportional to chi. The convective stability of the l = 1 mode in spherical accretion is discussed, in relation with the asymmetric explosion of core-collapse supernovae. The advective stabilization of long-wavelength perturbations weakens the possible influence of convection alone on a global l = 1 mode.