Pattern Formation And Solitons

Numerical simulations of a simple reaction--diffusion model reveal a surprising variety of irregular spatio--temporal patterns. These patterns arise in response to finite--amplitude perturbations. Some of them resemble the steady irregular patterns discussed by Lee et al. Others consist of spots which grow until they reach a critical size at which time they divide in two. If, in some region, the spots become overcrowded, all the spots in that region decay into the uniform background.

It is shown that, by letting wavenumbers and frequencies complex in Hirota's bilinear method, new classes of exact solutions of soliton equations can be obtained systematically. They include not only singular or N-homoclinic solutions but also N-wavepacket solutions.

The stability of convection rolls in a fluid heated from below is limited by secondary instabilities, including the skew-varicose and crossroll instabilities. We observe a stability boundary defined by the same instabilities in stripe patterns in a vertically oscillated granular layer. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the mechanism of the skew-varicose instability in granular patterns is similar to that in convection. These results suggest that pattern formation in granular media can be described by continuum models analogous to those used in fluid systems.

We present experimental study of a topological excitation, {\it interface}, in a vertically vibrated layer of granular material. We show that these interfaces, separating regions of granular material oscillation with opposite phases, can be shifted and controlled by a very small amount of an additional subharmonic signal, mixed with the harmonic driving signal. The speed and the direction of interface motion depends sensitively on the phase and the amplitude of the subharmonic driving.

A high degree of control over the structure and dynamics of domain patterns in nonequilibrium systems can be achieved by applying nonuniform external fields near parity breaking front bifurcations. An external field with a linear spatial profile stabilizes a propagating front at a fixed position or induces oscillations with frequency that scales like the square root of the field gradient. Nonmonotonic profiles produce a variety of patterns with controllable wavelengths, domain sizes, and frequencies and phases of oscillations.

Nonlinear convection structures are investigated in quantitative detail as a function of Rayleigh number for several negative and positive Soret coupling strengths (separation ratios) and different Lewis and Prandtl numbers characterizing different mixtures. A finite difference method was used to solve the full hydrodynamic field equations in a range of experimentally accessible parameters. We elucidate the important role that the concentration field plays in the nonlinear states of stationary overturning convection (SOC) and of traveling wave (TW) convection. Structural differences in the concentration boundary layers and of the concentration plumes in TW's and SOC's and their physical consequences are discussed. These properties show that the states con- sidered here are indeed strongly nonlinear, as expected from the magnitude of advection and diffusion in the concentration balance. The bifurcation behaviour of the states is analysed using different order parameters such as flow intensity, Nusselt number, a newly defined mixing parameter characterized by the variance of the concentration field, and the TW frequency. For further comparison with experiments, light intensity distributions are determined that can be observed in side-view shadowgraphs. Structural analyses of all fields are made using colour coded isoplots, vertical and lateral field profiles, and lateral Fourier decompositions. Transport properties of TWs are also discussed, in particular the mean lateral concentration current that is caused by the phase difference between concentration wave and velocity wave and that is roughly proportional to the TW frequency. This current plays an important role in the structural dynamics and stability of spatially-localized traveling-wave convection (cf. accompanying paper).

Nonlinear, spatially localized structures of traveling convection rolls are investigated in quantitative detail as a function of Rayleigh number for two different Soret coupling strengths (separation ratios) with Lewis and Prandtl numbers characterizing ethanol-water mixtures. A finite-difference method was used to solve the full hydrodynamic field equations numerically. Structure and dynamics of these localized traveling waves (LTW) are dominated by the concentration field. Like in the spatially extended convective states ( cf. accompanying paper), the Soret-induced concentration variations strongly influence, via density changes, the buoyancy forces that drive convection. The spatio-temporal properties of this feed-back mechanism, involving boundary layers and concentration plumes, show that LTW's are strongly nonlinear states. Light intensity distributions are determined that can be observed in side-view shadowgraphs. Detailed analyses of all fields are made using colour-coded isoplots, among others. In the frame comoving with their drift velocity, LTW's display a nontrivial spatio-temporal symmetry consisting of time-translation by half an oscillation period combined with vertical reflection through the horizontal midplane of the layer. A time-averaged concentration current is driven by a phase difference between the waves of concentration and vertical velocity in the bulk of the LTW state. The associated large-scale concentration redistribution stabilizes the LTW and controls its drift velocity into the quiescent fluid by generating a buoyancy-reducing concentration "barrier" ahead of the leading LTW front. The selection of the width of the LTW's is investigated and comparisons with experiments are presented.

The coefficients of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equations that describe weakly nonlinear convection in a large rotating annulus are calculated for a range of Prandtl numbers σ . For fluids with σ≈0.15 , we show that the rotation rate can tune the coefficients of the corresponding amplitude equations from regimes where coherent patterns prevail to regimes of spatio-temporal chaos.

We report experimental observations of the convection-driven fingering instability of an iodate-arsenous acid chemical reaction front. The front propagated upward in a vertical slab; the thickness of the slab was varied to control the degree of instability. We observed the onset and subsequent nonlinear evolution of the fingers, which were made visible by a {\it p}H indicator. We measured the spacing of the fingers during their initial stages and compared this to the wavelength of the fastest growing linear mode predicted by the stability analysis of Huang {\it et. al.} [{\it Phys. Rev. E}, {\bf 48}, 4378 (1993), and unpublished]. We find agreement with the thickness dependence predicted by the theory.

We study coupled maps on a Cayley tree, with local (nearest-neighbor) interactions, and with a variety of boundary conditions. The homogeneous state (where every lattice site has the same value) and the node-synchronized state (where sites of a given generation have the same value) are both shown to occur for particular values of the parameters and coupling constants. We study the stability of these states and their domains of attraction. As the number of sites that become synchronized is much higher compared to that on a regular lattice, control is easier to effect. A general procedure is given to deduce the eigenvalue spectrum for these states. Perturbations of the synchronized state lead to different spatio-temporal structures. We find that a mean-field like treatment is valid on this (effectively infinite dimensional) lattice.