Novel Patterns and Chaotic Dynamics of Surface Waves


Collaborators: Jerry Gollub, Arshad Kudrolli, Mathew Abraham


Topics:

Onset patterns

Secondary instabilities

Two frequency forcing

Stadium modes

Scarred patterns and ray orbits


* Experiments have also been conducted with low viscosity fluids in which the walls of the contanier play an important role in determining the patterns that are formed. In the case of a stadium shaped container, at least three modes of the stadium were observed. These patterns are "scarred", which means that the amplitude is enhanced along the trajectories of certain classical ray orbits. An example known as the "Bowtie" mode is shown. Scarred wavefunctions in irregular shaped geometries were first predicted by Heller in 1984, and were seen experimentally only recently in microwave cavities. This example is the first observed scarred pattern in a nonlinear system.

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Last modified on 11/19/96.