Parametrically excited quasicrystalline surface waves

Abstract

In an experiment on the parametric excitation of capillary waves (the Faraday instability) we have observed a stable standing-wave pattern with twelvefold orientational order. This ``quasipattern'' is analogous to a two-dimensional quasicrystal, but it occurs in a macroscopic nonequilibrium fluid-dynamical system. It is observed in containers whose side walls are of various shapes including an irregular shape, and thus it cannot be ascribed to side-wall boundary effects.