Traveling-Wave Convection in Binary Fluid Mixtures.

The Fluid Dynamics literature is filled with a number of classical experiments which, because of their conceptual simplicity, have been performed and described repeatedly for decades. One well-known example is Rayleigh-Benard convention (RBC), in which a pattern of rolls of circulating fluid forms when a thin, horizontal layer of fluid is heated from below. Because this experiment is a closed system which can be controlled with extreme precision, and because the resulting flow can exhibit complex dynamical behavior and form a wide variety of spatial patterns, RBC has been the subject of a particular resurgence of interest in the last fifteen years.