Confined states of traveling-wave convection

Abstract

Spatially confined states of traveling-wave convection of arbitrary length are studied in ethanol-water mixtures contained in a narrow annular channel, a geometry that approximates a one-dimensional system with periodic boundary conditions. The measured properties of these states, including the Rayleigh number at which they are observed, the frequency and wave number of the traveling waves, and the spatial variation of the amplitude and wave number, are in agreement with recent numerical calculations, leading to a microscopic understanding of these dynamical, nonequilibrium structures.