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Axisymmetric solitons
MSC : Elise Bourdin (M2), Jean-Claude Bacri, Eric Falcon.
Solitary waves or solitons are localized nonlinear waves that propagate almost without deformation due to the balance between the nonlinearity and the dispersion. Solitons are ubiquitous in hydrodynamics, optics and condensed matter. However, most of them propagates within a quasi-one-dimensional plane system. Observation of axisymmetric solitary waves is much more scarce. We have designed an experiment to observe axisymmetric solitary waves on the surface of a cylindrical magnetic fluid layer. Generally, in a usual fluid, a cylindrical fluid layer is unstable and droplets appear (Rayleigh-Plateau instability). By using a ferrofluid (a colloidal suspension of magnetic nanoparticles), it is possible to stabilize this cylindrical fluid layer. To wit, a metallic tube carrying an electrical current creates a magnetic field which stabilizes the cylindrical layer of ferrofluid around the tube due to the magnetic centripetal force. Both the shape and the speed of the solitary waves are modified by the strength of the magnetic field. Such a system allows us to observe for the first time the axisymmetric magnetic solitary waves predicted theoretically in the 80s. The study of collisions between these new type of solitary waves should be of particular interest.
Nom des membres actuels ou anciens
BACRI Jean-Claude, FALCON Éric, BOURDIN Élise
General keyword
Teams
Keywords
- Wetting, capilarity, dynamics of fluid interfaces
- Magnetic particles, liquids or materials, responsive materials
- Out of equilibrium dynamic systems and nonlinear physics
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