2007/08/31 by Claudio Falcon, Claudio Falcón, Eric Falcon +5 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Aeolian processes and effects #Coastal and Marine Dynamics #Ocean Waves and Remote Sensing #cond-mat.other #nlin.CD #physics.class-ph #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/86/14002
published as Europhysics Letters (EPL) 86 (2009) 14002
arxiv created 2009/02/09 · openalex publication_date 2009/04/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We report the observation of capillary wave turbulence on the surface of a fluid layer in a low-gravity environment. In such conditions, the fluid covers all the internal surface of the spherical container that is submitted to random forcing. The surface wave amplitude displays power law spectrum over two decades in frequency, corresponding to wavelength from millimeters to a few centimeters. This spectrum is found in roughly good agreement with wave turbulence theory. Such a large-scale observation without gravity waves has never been reached during ground experiments. When the forcing is periodic, two-dimensional spherical patterns are observed on the fluid surface such as subharmonic stripes or hexagons with wavelength satisfying the capillary wave dispersion relation.