Hydrodynamic instabilities -- of convective nature or based on the action
of a vortical-acoustic cycle or pressure-wave amplification -- in the
neutrino-heated postshock layer during the phase of shock stagnation can
grow to global asymmetries of neutrino-driven supernova explosions. The
talk discusses the status of the numerical modeling andthe possible implications of these instabilities for pulsar kicks and
observable anisotropies of core-collapse supernovae. In
particular, simulations are presented which demonstrate that major
observational properties of SN 1987A may be explained by such instabilities
without invoking rapid rotation in the core of the exploding star.
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