Title: Reaction-advection-diffusion systems with chaotic advection
Speaker: Tom Solomon
Speaker Info: Bucknell University
Brief Description:
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Abstract:
We are conducting experiments on pattern-formation and traveling wave propagation in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky chemical reaction in flows that exhibit Lagrangian chaos (chaotic mixing). Two fluid flows are studied: a blinking vortex flow and an oscillating/drifting vortex chain. For the blinking vortex flow, the chemical patterns that form are compared with fields that describe the chaotic mixing of passive impurities in the same flow. For the oscillating/drifting vortex chain, complicated traveling waves are observed. We discuss these traveling waves in terms of recent theories of chaotic traveling waves. We also discuss the relationship between these experiments and theories discussing the importance of superdiffusive mixing on front propagation in reaction-advection-diffusion systems.Date: Friday, February 13, 2004