Dynamics of defects and traveling waves in an interfacial finger pattern

Abstract

We present the results of an experimental study of one-dimensional traveling finger patterns dominated by source and sink defects. The system studied is a driven fluid–air interface, and the traveling-wave state arises via a subcritical bifurcation. We analyze space–time images of the patterns to obtain the amplitude and local wave number of the left- and right-going traveling waves near the defects. We determine the width of the defects, and find that the width of the sinks does not vary significantly with distance above the bifurcation over the range of our experiments, while the source width increases as the bifurcation is approached from above. We also observe both localized depressions or enhancements in wave amplitude and periodic modulations of the pattern amplitude and wave number.